Dogs Help Lost Boy Survive Cold Night

A 4-year-old boy wearing only a plastic jacket survived a cold, rainy night along the Mississippi River, huddling with two dogs to keep warm.

Dewayne Johnson was found Thursday morning less than a mile from his home northeast of Memphis. About 100 volunteers had searched unsuccessfully into the night after he was reported missing about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“We asked him, ‘How’d you keep warm?’ and he said, ‘My dogs kept me warm,’ ” said rescue squad member Eugene Coffee.

“He said he’d just wandered off too far and couldn’t find his way home. I’ve never seen a 4-year-old that tough.”

Guided by a helicopter pilot who spotted the boy from the air, rescuers reached the boy at about 11:30 a.m., huddled between his dog, Rosie, and a neighbor’s dog, Smokie. Temperatures had dropped into the upper 30s during the night.

“Those dogs didn’t even bark,” Lauderdale County Rescue Squad leader Ronnie Moore said. “I guess they thought they were protecting him.”

He was carried out on horseback to a standing ovation.

“This was really an act of the good Lord being with him,” Moore said.

Dewayne was checked for exposure at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Lauderdale and released.

He and two siblings were taken into custody by the state Department of Children’s Services. Agency spokeswoman Ava Philson said she could not say why.