When Dave Kryger lost his 12-year-old dog in McDonald Forest Monday afternoon, he wasn't sure what to think.

Kryger certainly didn't think Reggie would find his way home, several miles away on Fawnridge Drive, off Independence Highway. But Reggie did.

"I couldn't believe he made it that far," Kryger said Tuesday, shaking his head.

"It's like that Disney movie, ‘Homeward Bound,'" Kryger's wife, De, said.

Kryger and his friend Bob Rapp had been hiking through the forest, getting in shape for the elk hunting season. Reggie came along, as he usually does.

"Bob lost his orange vest, so we went looking for it," Kryger said. "We saw another hiker, and we asked him to look for it."

The other hiker found the vest and returned it, and Kryger and Rapp headed for the truck. The hiker kept going up the road.

"Five minutes later, we realized Reggie was gone," Kryger said.

As they searched for Reggie, they came across the other hiker. "He said he'd seen Reggie ahead of him," Kryger said. "We figured Reggie probably heard his footsteps so he kept going."

They drove around the forest for 31/2 hours looking for the dog before heading home. Kryger went back for another two and a half hours after dropping Rapp off, but he came up empty.

"I thought, ‘Oh God, he's gone,'" Kryger said.

Around midnight, the Krygers heard a coyote howling. De Kryger got up to chase it away, and she found Reggie outside instead.

"He came around the side of the house and leaped into my arms," she said.

The Krygers are still amazed Reggie made it home. "He's got to come over the back of the mountain and down, then across Highway 99W, then through Adair," Kryger said.

Following that, Kryger said, Reggie would have had to cross a ditch, a meadow and finally get across Independence Highway.

Kryger, a retired Albany attorney, has taken Reggie into the forest several times on hikes. But Reggie doesn't usually see where he's going when they head for the forest, the Krygers said.

"He's either in the Suburban or in the back of the truck," De said. "I guess they've got some kind of sonar."

On Tuesday, the little mutt was stiff, but happy to accept visitors. "I called the veterinarian this morning, and he said ‘give him an aspirin and call me tomorrow,'" De laughed.