Posted on 05/09/2014 9:02:12 AM PDT by heartwood
A 3-year-old North Dakota boy who disappeared for nearly seven hours was later found under the protective cover of the family’s pet dog, authorities said.
Carson Urness disappeared from his family’s 10-plus acre property in Cooperstown, North Dakota, around 7:30 p.m. Monday after being let out to play while his mom worked inside the home, the boy’s father told ABC News.
“She checked on him again at 7:30 and he was gone,” Carson’s father, Brock Urness, said of his wife, Courtney, who was inside taking care of the couple’s 11-month-old daughter while Carson played.
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Cooper is the family’s dog — a German Shepherd, Labrador and Golden Retriever “mutt,” as Urness calls him — that the family adopted three years ago after he was left on the side of the road near a relative’s home.
The Urnesses searched for Carson until 8:30 p.m. when they called 911. Less than 30 minutes later, the local police and fire departments had launched an aerial and ground search for Carson, aided by 200 neighbors, family and friends from Cooperstown, population about 800.
“They had an airplane here searching for him and 60 four-wheelers and people looking on foot and didn’t find anything,” Urness said.
Just before officials planned to call off the search for the night, around 2:30 a.m., officials decided to send out one last four-wheeler for a final sweep of the property.
“That four-wheeler found him about a mile away from our house, in the middle of one of our fields by a pasture,” Urness said. “Carson was in tall grass but when they shone lights down to sweep it, the dog stuck its head out.”
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Both Cooper and Carson were uninjured, save for Carson’s cold feet, which were the only body part of his that Cooper did not cover.
“Carson told his mom that Cooper stayed on top of him and kept him safe and warm,” Urness said. “He told her that he was a little scared when it got dark because he doesn’t like the dark.”
Now if only he had barked about six hours earlier...
Ping
That deserves a nice steak dinner.
And in other news, the cops did NOT shoot the dog.
“Cooper is the family’s dog — a German Shepherd, Labrador and Golden Retriever “mutt,” “
Good genes in that dog.
Our mutt is Lab-Shepherd - we think.
A 3 yr old is too young not to be supervised, much less left alone outside.
I don’t think it’s in an animal’s instincts to make a lot of noise when they are guarding young out in the wild. That can attract the wrong kind of attention.
Awwww! Link w/pics: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lost-toddler-cuddled-dog-stay-warm-article-1.1783372
Lucky they didn’t run over the kid, out there roaming around in 4 wheelers.
indeed! awwww... i love doggies!
Scary thought, but I think the dog would have made their presence known.
Dog needs a steak diner for a week. He sure was on duty. To serve and protect. WOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFF
The dog and the boy probably fell asleep. Funny that there is that much grass, that they could not find them.
I was going to mention the same thing. Folks do not often consider the pack instinctive mentality of the family dog. To them, we are simply their "pack". That pack has a hierarchy that they understand completely (at least in their mind). There is an Alpha and they have their place as well. It is ingrained in their instinct, once the bonds are established, to be with, protect and support the pack. We have a terrific lab. For some time, when my son was younger and she was a pup, she had some issues competing for dominance over my son (this was a bit of a problem at times). She played a little rough with him. She is a great watch dog and alerts whenever someone comes on the property. She doesn't like strangers at the door unless me or my wife acknowledges them.
She does have one particular behavior that we have not been able to fully explain. When I (the pack alpha male) is around, she mostly ignores or at least tolerates other dogs. If I am not around, she can be nasty to other dogs when they approach, especially in her yard or with my kids. These are the neighbor's pets I'm talking about. We joke that in our neighborhood, she is the dog bully.
I love a good dog.
Not really. Isn’t it a prairie out there? maybe even a tall-grass prairie?
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