Hitchhiking Hound Takes Truck Route Home From Chasing Rabbits : Animals: A mutt found riding aboard a tractor-trailer rig loaded with cars is reunited with his L.A. owner after the dog’s tags are traced back to Tennessee.

The California Highway Patrol officers had a question for the tractor-trailer truck driver hauling a load of cars on the Golden State Freeway: How come he was letting his dog ride unsecured in the back with the Chevrolets?

And the truck driver had a question for them:

What dog?

So began a shaggy dog story that stretched from the weigh station in Castaic, where the stowaway mutt was discovered Wednesday, to Tennessee and then back to Los Angeles before the animal was finally united with its owner, CHP Sgt. Ed Shick said.

Weigh station officers stopped the northbound rig about 8 a.m. and, after learning that the dog had hitched an unauthorized ride, Shick opened an investigation.

While the dog--a black-and-white mongrel whose ancestors appear to include many beagles--snacked on hot dogs and Hamburger Helper at the weigh station, Shick traced the Tennessee rabies vaccination tag attached to its collar.

The tag, said Tennessee officials, was listed as belonging to a dog named Lady who had recently moved to Los Angeles with her owner, Willie Jones.

A dead end, Shick thought, because the dog in question was obviously a male.

But he called Jones anyway and, sure enough, the owner said Lady was missing.

Jones said he would come pick up the animal. But when he arrived, he took one look at the dog with the wagging tail and affectionately said, “Schoolboy, you rotten rascal, where’ve you been?”

Jones finally solved most of the mysteries for several puzzled CHP officers by explaining that three of his dogs had gotten lost Tuesday while running in the hills a few miles south of Castaic near Magic Mountain, where he had taken them to chase rabbits, their favorite exercise in Tennessee.

One was later found dead, hit by a car.

The other two, Lady and Schoolboy, were still missing until Shick called. Jones said he had apparently mixed up Schoolboy and Lady’s collars while putting them on the animals.

It remained unknown how and where Schoolboy boarded the northbound truck.

And Lady--the real Lady, that is--was still missing.