Puppies save three-year-old boy lost in freezing Virginia woods

[Are_grits_groceries]

A toddler lost in the Virginia woods was back home safe Sunday thanks to two puppies who kept him warm through a harrowing night of freezing temperatures.

Jaylynn Thorpe, 3, wandered away from his baby-sitter at 4 p.m. Friday and was missing for 21 hours as hundreds of friends, family and law enforcement officials searched for him in the thick woods of Halifax County, fearing the worst.
<snip>
Officials said the lost little boy and the two family puppies wandered up to a mile in the dark, even across a highway, but it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that members of the search team found him sitting by a tree, the two puppies nestled against him.
<snip>
"When I first saw him, he was like, 'Momma, I got cold. I slept in the woods last night. The puppies kept me warm.' He told me that ... the dogs slept up against him. And I'm sure the body heat kept him warm," said his mother, Sarah Ingram.

Billie Jo Roach, another member of the search party that found the boy, said the puppies refused to leave his side.

As the child was placed in an ambulance to be taken to a local hospital for examination, "The puppies were watching where he went.

"Where he went, they went," Roach said
<snip>


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/12/07/200...

YAY Puppies!!

[TwilightGardener]

1. Puppies like body heat. The kid had some.

[redqueen]

26. .

[arcadian]

27. My first thought as well, the puppies weren't rescuing the boy they were exploiting him.

n/t

[tigereye]

29. well, at least it was mutually beneficial...

[rateyes]

2. OK, now I have something in my eyes blurring my computer screen.

Yay, puppies, indeed!!

[OnyxCollie]

8. Yeah. Me too.

Puppies.

[goclark]

14. The world has not touched the surface of the wonder of animals

I was having a migraine one night many years ago.
My heart was pounding and I was so alone and frightened.
My little Maltese was sitting by my feet and he took a running leap to my lap!

He started licking my face with a vigor that I can't even describe.

When he stopped, the migraine was GONE.

[rateyes]

18. They can even smell cancer cells.

[goclark]

20. Yes they can and my Maltese was a Pet Sitter

for a Lab that had seizures.

My Pet Sitter had a huge Lab named Baby.
She trained Muffy to come and get her when Baby was having a seizure.

Muffy would run and find her or someone in the family and then rush back and put his paw on Baby's paw until the seizure stopped.
He would not leave Baby until he knew that the seizure was over.

I cry when I think what a little giant my little Maltese was.
I started calling him Dr. Muffy.

I wanted to have him visit patients in the hospital but he got sick and finally left this earth after 11 precious years with our family.

[WCGreen]

3. Toddler's best friend...

PUPPIES!!!!

[Smith_3]

4. What about kittens? This thread is discriminating against kittens.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. I have 2 full figured kittehs.

I know they could keep a toddler warm. They have spoken to me about

the bias in this post.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Hah! I think my three "ample" kitties might have squished the poor boy!

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. When they got hungry enough, kittens would have eaten the child.

Oh, don't deny it.

Edit: The cat is now sitting next to my head, eyeing me like a pork chop, purring with expectation of pork chop flavor. I has a flavur...

[liberalmuse]

6. Awwww.

I didn't know puppies did that. I thought they just wandered aimlessly where they pleased. What a precious story! I'm glad all 3 are okay.

[Mari333]

7. aww and i needed a sweet story today

thanks. they really are our best friends. (kitties too!)

[Kajsa]

9. Hurray for the puppies!

They saved his life.

They are adorable, btw.

I'm so glad the little boy is OK.

Hopefully the puppies will get some
good treats and lots of hugs for
their efforts.

[bdamomma]

10. those puppies saved that little boy. animals so much better than people

sometimes.

[whathehell]

19. Mark Twain said "The difference between a dog..

and a man is that if you pick up a dog and feed him, he will not bite you"

[Raschel]

11. Who doesn't love a good puppy story?! Great way to start the day.

[rateyes]

12. This thread is worthy of the greatest page...

come on peoples...we all need good news once in a while.

[KittyWampus]

13. UP WITH TEH PUPPIES!

[Jennicut]

16. Very sweet, good for the puppies and glad the little boy is okay, my daughter is the same age

I would be inconsolable if my little girl wandered away. Glad the pups were there, good little doggies.

[DonEBrook]

17. The kid has parents -and- a guardian? How odd...

[CraftyGal]

21. Actually it is not odd...

My son has me as his parent,TrogL as his step-parent and we share guardianship with 2 grandmothers and a grandfather. This is nott he first time I have seen this.

CraftyGal

[DonEBrook]

25. Hmph. Well it seems odd to me because I've never heard of such a thing before

and I've been around for 66 years.

[Lyric]

22. Good puppies.

When I was a teenager, my dog saved my life. She was a Retriever/Husky mix, solid black, named Dallas. When the remnants of Hurricane Fran headed up the coast and hit the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (where we lived on our farm) there was massive flooding throughout the region. We were trying to help our neighbor save two of his bison calves, who'd panicked at the rising water and wound up separated from the main herd and surrounded by water.

Understand, we were in the midst of about five-hundred acres of rolling farmland between his farmhouse and ours. It was still pouring rain, and the water was rising fast--we'd brought Dallas with us to help herd the calves, and she and I were stuck with the calves. We managed to get the rope around them and they were hauled through the water to safety, but Dallas and I couldn't go that way--the water was raging too fast by the time the calves were safe. We were stuck.

I remember looking at Dallas and telling her, "Okay girl--let's go home." She nosed around until she found a shallow place to wade the water and get to the higher ground behind it, and then led me across five huge fields and through three barbed-wire fences (she found the easy-to-cross sections for me) until we found ourselves finally approaching our own farmhouse from the rear. I'd have never found the way by myself--it was pouring too hard to see five feet in front of me, and with the high water all around, I couldn't make our landmarks at all. Everything looked like some alien world. But Dallas got me home.

My Mom was so relieved when we got home that she gave Dallas a steak, and my stepfather saved her an entire lower steer leg the next time his boss butchered. She was a good dog. She died about five years ago at the ripe old age of seventeen.

We now have a four-year-old Golden Retriever named Toby, and I have no doubt in my mind that if something like this ever happened to OktoberKid, and he was lost with Toby...Toby would do exactly the same thing. He's the smartest, sweetest, dog that anybody could ever wish for, and he loves us as much as we love him.













I my Puppysaurus Rex.

[skooooo]

24. awww..

What a sweet doggy. YOu're lucky to have had such a good dog.

[ACTION BASTARD]

28. Once AGAIN Dogs prove the truth about cats and dogs. Clearly man's best friend is

the superior creature.

[Orrex]

30. One puppy was overhead saying to the other

"And I thought they smelled bad on the outside."

[DS1]

31. Wait? I thought you were bringing the lightsaber!

Awww dammit! This game is gonna suck now!

[Orrex]

32. You are soooooo four minutes late