It was just before 5 p.m. on a Monday in April when 2-year-old Boden Allen was reported missing in Seligman, Arizona, a small remote town of fewer than 1,000 people.
The little boy, dressed in a tank top and pajama pants, had wandered away from home.
The next morning, a rancher named Scotty Dunton was driving out to town when he noticed his dog sitting by the entrance of his driveway.
“I look up, and there’s a little kid standing there with my dog,” he said.
It was Boden. Scotty’s home is about seven miles from the boy’s house, across rough country with “three big mountain ranges” and “big valleys.” He still “can’t believe the kid made it that far.”
Scotty brought Boden inside and gave him something to eat and drink. The boy said he had slept under a tree. When Scotty asked if his dog had found him, Boden said yes.
The dog is Buford, an Anatolian Pyrenees. He is a “guardian dog” who patrols near the house at night and keeps coyotes away. Scotty believes Buford found the toddler and protected him while bringing him to safety.
“It’s what he does. He loves kids, so I can imagine he wouldn’t leave him when he found him,” Scotty said. “I was ecstatic that he was OK and that my dog found him.”
Deputies confirmed it was the missing boy, and Boden went home to his family.
And Buford’s reward? “Oh, he’s getting steak dinner tonight, my wife already said,” Scotty said. “He did a great job.”
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