COEUR d'ALENE - Only Noodles knows how he survived five days and nights in the wilderness on Fourth of July Pass.

Only the beagle/basset hound can explain how he steered clear of cars and trucks on Interstate 90.

Only he could say if he had any close encounters with wolves.

But he's not talking.

Noodles is, however, eating and sleeping a lot, which made his owner one happy man.

"It's amazing he stayed there, where we had the wreck," Barry Poorman said as Noodles rested on the floor at his feet.

It was Poorman who found the 4-year-old, 65-pound dog about 3 a.m. Wednesday. He hadn't seen Noodles since he fled following a crash Friday morning near Exit 28 on Interstate 90.

Poorman made the 3-hour drive from Kennewick, Wash., where he lives, after receiving a report of a Noodles sighting on Tuesday night. He arrived at the pass about 1:30 a.m. and 90 minutes later, walking along I-90, he was reunited with one of his best friends.

"I was calling for him and had my flashlight, and was looking in the tree line and I see these two points of light looking at me," Poorman said. "I called him, and he came right down and jumped in the truck."

The reunion put a happy ending to the search for the stubby, shy canine that attracted regional attention and included folks who had never met him, but wanted to save him.

Carmel Travis, a Pullman, Wash., Realtor, heard of Noodles' plight via emails shared between fellow pet rescue activists. She made fliers and posters, and was preparing to drive to Fourth of July Pass Wednesday when she received word the dog was safe and sound.

"What a relief he got him," she said.

Travis, a part-time pet detective who trained in finding lost animals with Missing Pet Partnership, was particularly worriedabout Noodles. She cited the remoteness of the area, the cold, wet weather, the proximity to the freeway, and no family nearby to immediately search for the dog, as reasons for concern.

But she also believed Noodles would be found. She said it's common for lost dogs to return to the point where they went missing. They are often discovered within a mile of where their owner last saw them.

"He kept circling back to the crash site," Travis said.

Since Friday, drivers had reported spotting a dog on Fourth of July Pass, sometimes not far off the road.

The Idaho State Police responded on Tuesday morning, but couldn't catch the timid dog that usually runs from people rather than to them.

"He's real shy," Poorman said.

Poorman and his granddaughter were on their way to visit a friend in Polson, Mont., when he lost control of his vehicle not long after cresting the pass about 9:45 a.m. Friday.

There were no injuries when the SUV rolled onto its side. Baby, a German Shepherd mix also in the car, stayed put. But when the back window broke, Noodles shot down the highway and disappeared around a turn.

"That was the last I saw of him," Poorman said. "He was scared."

Poorman and a tow truck driver looked for Noodles, but couldn't find him. And Poorman had to return to Eastern Washington, where he is part of a crew dismantling Hanford, the decommissioned nuclear production plant.

All the while, he worried.

But he didn't lose faith.

"I hoped somebody was going to find him, he'd be taken in somewhere," Poorman said. "He wasn't having any of it."

Tuesday night, though, he received a message that Noodles had been spotted near the accident scene earlier that day. He soon headed out on the 185-mile drive in search of his furry friend.

It had been nearly five days when he finally saw Noodles about 100 yards from where the Bronco crashed.

"He stayed right where we had the accident," he said.

Other than being a bit thinner and wet, Noodles was happy and healthy.

"I'm sure he was miserable, eating whatever he could get " Poorman said, smiling. "He came right to me. He was ready to go home."

Noodles climbed into the back of Poorman's SUV, where he took a drink of water, curled up in a blanket, and closed his eyes.

"He must have slept 2 or 3 hours," Poorman said.

Poorman has had the dog, rescued from the pound, for two years. He had to put down his 10-year-old golden retriever, Buddy, two weeks ago because it had bone cancer. He didn't want to lose another of his four-legged friends.

"It's been some two weeks," he said.

Back home, Noodles will probably resume playing in the backyard with Baby, and certainly he'll take up his favorite pastime, digging holes.

And Poorman, of course, will spoil him silly.

"Oh, always," he said.