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Loyal Dog Stayed With A Missing Toddler Until He Was Found

When two-year-old William Odom went missing from his family home, he wasn’t alone. The family’s pet dog stayed with him the entire time he was gone.

Search efforts began on Tuesday morning shortly after Odom’s mother realized he was missing. Thankfully, he was found six hours later with the family’s dog, sleeping in a broken-down truck quarter-mile away from his house.

“Every time we found his footprint, we found the dog footprint right beside him. So the dog traveled with him all day,” Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson told WBTV. “When the little boy was found, the dog was still circling the truck and scratching on the truck.”

It seems the faithful pooch never left William’s side during his little adventure.

Harrison County Sheriff's Department

It’s not only their dog for which the Odom family have to be thankful: A 10-year-old boy discovered William inside the truck. After getting off the school bus, the boy heard the truck’s horn honking and saw the strange sight of a toddler inside, according to WBTV.

The boy told him, “Everything’s going to be all right. I’m going to go get my aunt,” he said to WBTV. The aunt and uncle were able to get the truck unlocked,  rescue William, and return him safely to his family.

“They got my baby—that’s all I could think,” William’s mom told WLOX.

According to the county sheriff, the toddler is in good health and doing well, aside from some scrapes and ant bites. That’s great news, considering he traveled all the way by himself wearing only a diaper.

There’s no bond quite like the one between humans and their animals and this story proves it! It’s yet another example of dogs helping out humans when we need it most. For instance, recently a rescue dog named Frida helped to rescue survivors of the earthquake in Mexico from the rubble.

That settles it: dogs can be heroes, too.