Monday afternoon, Boden Allen, a two-year-old boy, went missing from his home in Seligman, Arizona. Authorities launched a large-scale search effort overnight involving 40 search and rescue members, deputies from multiple counties, and a Department of Public Safety helicopter. During the search of the area, a pair of mountain lions were spotted and temperatures dropped into the 40s, but there was no sign of Boden.
Then early on Tuesday morning, local rancher Scotty Dunton found Boden standing at the end of his driveway - about seven miles from the boy’s home - with his dog, Buford, sitting nearby. Buford is an Anatolian Pyrenees who patrols the property overnights to keep coyotes from his animals.
Dunton had heard about the missing child and brought the boy inside to give him some food and water. The toddler said he’d slept under a tree, and the rancher believes Buford discovered him and led him back to the ranch and stayed with him to keep him warm through the night.
Scotty said Buford loves kids and likely didn’t leave Boden once he found him. Authorities were called in and quickly reunited the boy with his grateful parents. Dunton says that Buford would be getting a well-deserved steak dinner for his heroic effort.