Hitchhiking beagle reunited with owner....Flame-On

(5/23/03 - EL DORADO, KS) — A beagle that hitched a 20-hour ride to Alabama with a group of college students has been reunited with his Kansas owners after nearly two months.

Residents of the neighborhood where the reunion took place brought out lawn chairs and disposable cameras to record the occasion and get pictures of the television satellite trucks parked along the street.

"Norman? Norman, come here! Norman?" his owner, Jennifer Cross, shouted. The beagle ran barking out of the home and up to the family.

A tearful Cross said she thought she would never again see the dog her husband gave her as a wedding present eight years ago.

"We had given up hope," she said. "We really thought he was gone."

Tim and Jennifer Cross of Solomon last saw their 8-year-old dog March 28. Tim Cross went out for an unleashed walk with Norman, and the beagle disappeared.

Norman showed up last Friday outside a computer repair shot in Auburn, Ala.

Jim Carson, a freshman at Auburn University, said he and some friends found the dog wandering around a truck stop in Solomon in late March and took him to Alabama. The group was headed home after a Colorado ski trip.

Carson, 19, said he and his friends put the dog in their truck to keep him safe. The dog settled into their Auburn apartment for 1½ months until wandering off last week.

A computer technician found him and tracked down Norman's owners.

On Wednesday, the dog returned to Kansas with John and Connie Staton, Auburn residents who were planning a trip home to visit relatives in El Dorado for Memorial Day and heard about the dog's adventure.

Norman was reunited with the Crosses at the home of Connie Staton's father. Multicolored balloons were attached to the front door, with a banner proclaiming "Welcome Home Norman" hung from the window.

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