A large search party involving multiple law-enforcement agencies couldn't locate a missing toddler who wandered away from his home in bear and cougar country on Monday. Thankfully, a rancher's dog did. On Tuesday morning, about 16 hours after the 2-year-old had disappeared from his home in Seligman, Arizona, about 75 miles west of Flagstaff, a rancher spotted the boy walking along a fence line on his property—and he wasn't alone. Trotting alongside the boy was the rancher's dog, Buford, who normally patrols the property and fends off coyotes, per NBC News.
It was a happy ending to a fearful night. During the search, a Department of Public Safety helicopter had spotted two mountain lions in the area, which is also home to bears and snakes, per KPNX. It turns out the boy had traveled 7 miles through the wilderness, at one point sleeping under a tree, rancher Scottie Dunton tells NBC. "He went through some rough country, it's all mountains and canyons and boulder piles, and it's rough for adults, let alone for 2-year-old kids," he says. "I told him, 'Buddy, you're the toughest little 2-year-old I've ever seen,'" Dunton adds, per KPNX.
Having retraced the boy's steps, Dunton believes Buford, an Anatolian Pyrenees, found the toddler about a mile away and led him to Dunton's home. "He goes half a mile, a mile from the house and just makes big loops," he tells KPNX. "He loves kids, and I imagine he wouldn't leave him once he'd found him," he adds, per NBC. The boy, who was wearing only a tank top and PJ bottoms, was in good shape, with only a few scratches. "There was a thousand ways for that to go really, really bad and one good way, and luckily it turned out to be the good way," Dunton tells KPNX. (More uplifting news stories.)
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