Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/golden-retriever-and-girls-lost-in-woods/

Ask any parent and they will tell you, it only takes a moment for disaster to strike. You can be paying attention and doing everything right and within a blink of an eye, the kids are gone.

That is what happened when seven-year-old Abigail and four-year-old Cecilia went missing from their home in Louisiana. It happened on November 29, and their parents, Mary and Justin Bourg, were beside themselves with grief.

They had disappeared from their property and ran into the woods. The family dog, Artemis, had gone first to explore and the girls followed him.

The police were called immediately and Mary also went on Facebook to ask everyone to pray for them. It wasn’t long before the community of Folsom was out in force looking for the missing girls.

It happened around 5 PM but the sun had gone down and everyone was getting concerned. They were looking through the woods to try to find the girls and they knew the kids had to be terrified. Even a helicopter was involved in the search.

Later that evening, a volunteer located the girls! However, it was Artemis the Golden retriever who was the real hero.

Mary wrote on Facebook: “We had volunteer search crews, ATV’s, drones, helicopters, dogs, cars, and even a 25-person horse crew was prepared to search. They were found deep in the heavy woods and it was DARK.”

She went on to say how grateful they were for Artemis. She shared on Facebook that when the volunteer spotted the girls, they sent out the search crew and Artemis was barking to help people find them. When police showed up, he was in full protective mode and started growling at them to keep the girl safe.

Eventually, Artemis allowed the rescuers to come and do what they do best. Mary was thrilled with everyone involved, as the whole community was there to help search for the girls. She was especially thankful for the two neighbors that found the girls first.

Rooster Cowart had gone out into the woods to look after he saw the Facebook post. He knew that things were dangerous out there because of wild hogs and cold temperatures. It was even a hog that got his attention.

According to Mary’s Facebook post: “Rooster entered the woods from a different highway and started following a creek until he thought he heard the girls. He was then chased out by a wild hog (thank Jesus Artemis was protecting our girls from those dangerous things 😣).”

He knew that the hog was nervous and felt that the girls must be nearby. It wasn’t long before the girls were found.

As far as Artemis was concerned, he was circling the girls but Mike’s wife was able to get up close to the girls.

The little girls and Artemis are doing fine. They are spending plenty of time together, getting rested up with lots of snuggles.

You can see part of their reunion in the video below:

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog