Arizona dog saves lost toddler miles away from home

KINGMAN, Ariz. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - A two-year-old boy is back at home in his own bed after spending the night alone in the wilderness and scaring his family half to death.

The toddler wandered away from his house in Seligman, walking several miles until he came across a special guardian.

Buford the Anatolian Pyrenees protects the Dunton Ranch, walking the perimeter nightly to keep wildlife out.

"It's in their blood. They're guardians and stuff," said Scotty Dunton, a rancher.

But on Tuesday morning, there was someone else Buford was protecting.

"I see Bueford coming down the deal right there with a little blonde-haired boy with him," Dunton shared.

The blonde-haired boy's parents reported him missing the night before after he wandered away from his home in Seligman.

"He was young and ended up wandering further than anyone would have hoped," said Megan Fitzgerald, Public Information Officer for the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office (YCSO).

YCSO, alongside other agencies, conducted a 16-hour search for the two-year-old.

"Not only did we search on foot, but also there were some of the razors and four by fours as well as we did make use of some of the helicopters to make sure we were doing everything we could to locate the child," Fitzgerald detailed.

It was Buford who found the toddler about seven miles away from home, sleeping underneath a tree.

"There's 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 expressed.

The wonder of how a toddler managed to survive walking through rugged terrain without sustaining more than a few scratches will never fade for Dunton.

"There's three big canyons and ridges all the way leading to where he came from, so that's a long rough piece of country. So, it's amazing he made it as far as he did," Dunton added.

But Dunton knows if it wasn't for Buford, this happy ending might not have happened.