Missing 5-year-old boy with Down syndrome found with his loyal dog keeping him safe

That was the case recently, after a missing 5-year-old boy was found safe and sound thanks to his protective German shepherd.

On April 2, officers from the Houston Police Department responded to a call about a young boy walking along train tracks with only his dog by his side.

Sgt. Ricardo Salas of the department says he realized the 5-year-old had Down syndrome, and was about a half a mile from his home. He also realized that the German shepherd, named Alejandro, had followed him as his protector.

“Witnesses told me the dog was with the little boy when they found him. As I walked away with the boy, the dog followed,” Sgt. Salas wrote on Twitter. “This dog was his protector and his angel.”

“It seems like to us that the dog knew something was up, he knew that the child wasn’t supposed to be wandering off and he ended up following him,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “He was very protective and would not take his eyes off the child.”

Even with the officers there to help them, Alejandro remained vigilant, not letting his human out of his sight.

“The dog was following basically everywhere I went. It wasn’t barking, it wasn’t intimidated,” Salas added, saying that when he put the boy in the car the dog “jumped inside the driver’s seat with him.”

Soon, the officers received another call and discovered that the boy was a missing child named Jose. The boy’s mother, Jasmine Martinez, told Click 2 Houston that she and her 5-year-old son had started taking a nap, and when she woke up she realized Jose had wandered off.

Thankfully, everything worked out okay: the boy had no injuries other than some minor scrapes. The family is grateful, but not surprised, that their loyal dog stepped up to protect Jose when he was in danger.

“Alejandro has always been a very overprotective dog since we got him, we got him when he was a baby. I was not surprised when they said he was walking with him the whole entire time,” Jose’s sister, Samantha Muñoz, told Click 2 Houston.

Police said no charges would be filed against the family, and the mother is now installing child protective locks to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Sgt. Salas says he was moved by the “level of loyalty this dog had to this little boy” and says it was important that the dog was looking after him because the railroad tracks are normally very busy.

“Thank you God for looking over this child,” he wrote.

Thank god this dog was there to keep this little boy safe.