Puppies Keep Toddler Safe During Night in Woods

When a three-year-old got lost outside of his home, his two dogs helped keep him safe and warm until he was rescued.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on December 14 2008

Last week, three-year-old Jaylynn Thorpe of Halifax County, Virginia, slipped out of his home while his babysitter was occupied, bringing the two family puppies with him for company while he went exploring the woods outside his home.

Soon, Jaylynn got lost, and wasn’t sure how to get back home. As it got late, the temperature dropped severely. Though police were on the lookout for the little boy, they feared he might freeze to death during the night.

“The only thing we wanted to do was just keep searching until we found him,” Sheriff Stanley Noblin told Australia’s Herald Sun.

Luckily, late the next afternoon, almost 24 hours after he’d gone missing, a rescue team found Jaylynn alive and unharmed. The little boy was cuddling with the two puppies next to a tree, and the rescuers believe that the dogs may have saved his life during the cold night.<

“When I first saw him, he was like, ‘Momma, I got cold. I slept in the woods last night. The puppies kept me warm,’” Jaylynn’s mother, Sarah Ingram, said.

Even when Jaylynn was taken to the hospital, the two dogs refused to leave his side.

“Where he went, they went,” said Billie Jo Roach, one of the rescuers.

Filed under: Animals and Pets, General Interest,

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