A 2-year-old reported missing in the Arizona high desert on Monday was found in part thanks to a local rancher’s dog: a big, fluffy Pyrenees named Buford.

Little Boden Allen wandered off his parents’ property in Seligman into mountain lion country at around 5:00 p.m. Monday evening. Yavapai County Search and Rescue conducted a 16-hour search long into Tuesday morning.

Ranger Scotty Dutton was surprised enough when he saw Buford wandering up a ranch track with little Boden in tow, but was even more surprised when the boy explained the ordeal he’d just gone through.

“I asked him, ‘did you walk all night long?’ and he said ‘no, I slept under a tree,’” Dutton told 12 News Arizona Dutton. “And I said, ‘well did my dog find you?’ And he goes, ‘yep’ and he said he followed the dog back to the house.”

He knew the child had been reported missing, and was “so grateful” to be able to find him, realizing only later that the boy had wandered for 7 miles before Buford found him.

Dutton added in between television interviews that tough desert terrain, multiple canyons and gorges, and dangerous wildlife lie between his house and Boden’s, an area about 100 miles south of the Grand Canyon.

Boden had wandered away while his mother was changing her other son’s diaper and his father was doing some work around the house.

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Search and Rescue utilized more than one helicopter in the hunt for Boden. At one point, the pilot noticed that there were two mountain lions following one of the search parties, highlighting the dangers the area could pose to a two-year-old.

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“There were about 1,000 ways for that to go really, really bad, and one good way, and luckily it turned out to be the good way,” Dutton said.

For Buford, whose total involvement was unclear, it probably seemed like just another day on the farm, only this time it led to a steak dinner.

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