Toddler Who Wandered Miles From Home And Spent Night In Desert Saved By Very Good Dog

A dog who lives in a remote ranch in Arizona got way more than just a belly rub for his heroic deed.

Buford, a 6-year-old Anatolian Pyrenees, found a missing 2-year-old boy who had wandered 7 miles from his Arizona home and spent the night in the desert, the dog’s owner said.

On Monday around 5 p.m. local time, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of the missing toddler, Boden Allen, who had wandered away from his home in the small town of Seligman, Arizona, the agency said in a Facebook post.

Over 40 search and rescue workers and several deputies searched for 16 hours for the boy, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.

As of 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said, the toddler had been found and was safe.

But it wasn’t the search team that sniffed out the child — it was apparently Buford.

“I’d heard about the missing child before I was going to town,” Buford’s human, Scotty Dundon, told the sheriff’s office in an interview. “And when I was driving out the driveway, I noticed my dog was sitting down by the entrance. And I look up, and the little kid’s standing there with my dog.”

How the toddler survived in the Arizona wilderness is a mystery. He was dressed in just a tank top and pajama pants, and authorities say that a rescue helicopter searching for him spotted at least two mountain lions on the terrain he’d traveled that night.

Dundon also pointed out in his interview with the sheriff’s office that the area Boden traveled isn’t exactly toddler-friendly.

“I can’t believe that kid made it that far. It’s 7 miles, and it’s just, that’s if he walked in a straight line,” the rancher told deputies.

He added, “There’s three big mountain ranges between here and his house, and big valleys, and yeah. For a 2-year-old to do that, it’s insane.”

The rancher told authorities that he immediately brought the toddler into his home and gave him food and water.

“I said, ‘Did you walk all night?’ and he said no,” the rancher told deputies. “He said, ‘I laid up under a tree.’ And I said, ‘Well, did my dog find you?’ And he goes, ‘Yep.’”

Although it’s unclear how Buford might have found Boden, Dundon told NBC News that he’s pretty sure his pup guided the child for quite a while to his ranch, located about 100 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park.

Dundon told NBC that he later “physically went and found” the little boy’s footprints. He then tracked them for a mile and noticed that Buford was with him that entire time.

Dundon told authorities in his video interview that Anatolian Pyrenees are guard dogs by nature and that Buford “just kind of patrols within a half mile of the house all night and keeps coyotes away and stuff like that.”

But he also said the dog “loves kids, so I can imagine he wouldn’t leave him when he found him.”

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told NPR that Boden’s parents were “distraught” over the disappearance of their toddler and had a teary reunion upon his return.

The little boy was found in good health, albeit with a few cuts and scrapes and mild dehydration.

As for Buford, the doggo got quite a reward for his role in locating the kiddo.

“He got a 2-pound rib-eye last night,” Dunton told NBC. “He’s just a cool, cool dog.”