A two-year-old is found by a rancher’s dog after walking seven miles from home. This is the kind of story that takes your breath for a second and hands it back wrapped in wonder.
Little Boden Allen — just two years old — wandered into the wilderness of Arizona, swallowed up by seven miles of rugged valleys and steep mountain ranges, where mountain lions roam and the desert wind doesn’t whisper—it wails. One moment, he was playing beside his mama while she changed a diaper, and the next... gone. Just like that. And isn’t that how life happens sometimes? The unraveling. The ache. The sudden dread that grips a mama’s soul and squeezes.
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But here’s where the miracle unfolds, one paw print at a time.
Buford didn’t wear wings. No halo. No glowing light. Just thick white fur, and a slow patrol gait. Buford, an Anatolian Pyrenees, had one job that morning: watch the ranch. Guard the flock. Look for coyotes.
Instead, he found a baby.
And I wonder if maybe angels sometimes walk on four legs.
Scotty Dunton, the rancher, said it best: “He loves kids, so I can imagine he wouldn't leave him when he found him.” Buford didn’t bark or chase or run for a bone. He stayed. He stayed with Boden like heaven whispered, Don’t leave this one. Not today. Not on my watch.
The dog’s quiet loyalty caught the eye of his owner, who spotted the two of them—boy and dog, just standing in the brush of early morning. Because even when a mother’s eyes are heavy with panic and the night stretches long with prayers you can't put words to, God sends watchmen. Sometimes with fur and wet noses. Sometimes with instincts we call “just a dog,” but heaven calls an angel.
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For sixteen hours, over 40 search and rescue workers combed the wilderness. Deputies spotted not one, but two mountain lions in the terrain Boden had walked through! That toddler, so tiny, crossed mountain ranges. Slept under stars. Kept walking. And Buford found him.
“I can't believe that kid made it that far,” Scotty said, shaking his head. “For a 2-year-old to do that, that's insane.” But it’s not just insane—it’s divine.
Because God still sends help before we know we need it. Because sometimes protection doesn’t look like walls or weapons—sometimes it looks like a dog who won’t leave your side.
Boden’s safe. He’s home. And Buford—he’s proof that heaven doesn’t always come with fanfare. Sometimes, it comes on paws, in the middle of nowhere, and leads lost hearts back home.
And that’s just like our God.
The One who sends what we need, exactly when we need it.
The One who never sleeps.
The One who never lets even one tiny soul go unnoticed in the wilderness.
Even when you feel lost, He knows exactly where you are.
And He might just send a dog to sit with you until you find your way back home.
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Psalm 91:11 “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”
h/t: ABC News
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABC News
