Homing dog ?

[Astraz]

Years ago, my sister moved house when she got married, and took her dog with her in the car. - A journey of five miles. The next day, the dog escaped and eventually turned up back at my mums house where she lived before. My question is this, - if the dog went in the car and had no way of knowing where it had travelled to, how did it find its way back "home". Do dogs have a directional sense similar to homing pigeons ?

[Moog]

This isn't an answer just a couple of similar incidents that amazed me.. we had a cat when I was younger, we moved over 20 miles to a new house, the cat promptly disappeared only to turn up at our old house 7 days later, he was returned to the new house and disappeared again, this time for nearly three weeks, but eventually turned up at the old house with his stomach ripped open [suspected weasle attack]. He was taken to the new house again and this time stayed there. He was transported between places in a cat box in the back of a car and could not possibly have known the way back. Even more amazingly I was told of a cat who somehow transported itself back to it's former residence when it's owners moved from Cardiff to Bristol which means it either walked across the Severn bridge or a vast distance to the next nearest crossing of the river!