ohmidog!

A three-year-old boy lost for two days in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest may have been kept warm enough to survive by the family’s giant white fluffy dog.

Joshua Childers wandered away from his home last week and into the forest, spending two nights in temperatures that dropped to 40 degrees, according to KSPR in Springfield.

“One of our initial concerns was how could a 35-pound child could stay alive in forty degree weather in the rain for two nights and three days,” said Steven Crawford, Childer’s doctor. “That may be the answer, and he was telling about being with the dog at night.”

The family dog is a Great Pyrenees, and weighs about 125 pounds.

“The fact that the child survived the exposure to begin with, it’s miraculous as far as I’m concerned,” Crawford said. Crawford said the child told him he drank stream water and that he didn’t sleep much. The child was released from the hospital this weekend after being treated for hypothermia, scratches and bug bites.

The family’s dog disappeared around the time Joshua did and reappeared at the family’s home right after he was found. The doctor thinks the dog was with Joshua the whole time, although, when the child was found, two other dogs were with him. The family thinks those dogs may have scared the family pet away.