A toddler recently wandered miles away from his Arizona home through terrain with mountain lions before being brought to safety… by a trusty guardian dog.

The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office shared in a Facebook post that a two-year-old was reported missing from his home in Seligman on April 14. During the next 16 hours, dozens of deputies, search and rescue crews, and Department of Public Safety personnel worked to find the boy. They were unable to locate him, and, even more troubling, two mountain lions were spotted by a rescue helicopter crew in the area where he had likely traveled.

Theat’s where a rancher seven miles away and his dog, Buford, came in. The rancher said he was aware there was a missing child, while Buford would have been on the job surveying the property. The rancher said, “He’s an Anatolian Pyrenees so he’s a guardian dog, so he just patrols within a half mile of the house all night and keeps coyotes away.”

Buford also attracted a boy, though. When the rancher was headed toward the property’s entrance, he said he found the two-year-old standing there with his dog. Once he’d calmed him, he asked if the dog had found him, and the boy said he had.

Buford’s owner said, “It’s what he does. He loves kids, so I can imagine he wouldn’t leave him when he found him.”

The sheriff’s office thanked everyone who made this a happy ending, including Buford.