HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A neighbor’s dog helped to safely find a boy who ran away from his Hallandale Beach home.
Noah disappeared from his home while Lorraine Ruth, his mother, was out running errands on Dec. 26. Ruth said her son has a disability, so relatives stayed with the boy until she returned.
“Noah has Down syndrome, but he’s thankfully very high functioning,” Ruth said. “Noah was outside, and he literally was feet away, just feet away and playing with the ball and just ‘Boom,’ ran for no reason. It all happened so fast.”
Ruth said Noah outran the relatives, and they lost sight of the boy.
Neighbor Gina Silvestri was near the family’s home when the began their search for Noah.
“They said, ‘Did you see a little boy? Ten years old?’ And I said, ‘No,” Silvestri said. “They said, ‘Well, he’s missing,’ and I said, ‘Let me get Sasha.'”
Sasha, a 3-year-old male Belgian Tervuren that Silvestri had adopted from Miami-Dade Animal Services three months ago, was brought in to assist in the search.
“I ran down to where the little boy lives, and I asked her if she had a pillow or a blanket or something,” Silvestri said. “She said she had a toy, so we let Sasha smell it, and Sasha just took off right down the dock, and what got me was he didn’t stop.”
Sasha then ran down by the water and continued going until he reached a nearby high-rise.
“He just kept pulling me and pulling me,” Silvestri said. “He knew that Noah was in that building. To me, it was mind-boggling, and I saw somebody standing out there and said, ‘Did you see a little boy?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, he’s in that building.'”
At the same time the search party arrived, the residents inside the high-rise were calling Noah’s family.
“I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around him, and I was just crying hysterically,” Ruth said.
“Sasha saved the day, and to be honest, it says so much for the value of how much these dogs need forever homes,” Silvestri said.
When asked if he loved Sasha, Noah said, “I love Sasha. Yeah, a good doggie. ‘Cause gives me kisses.”
Ruth said she wants to thank the people who were at the building who also helped bring Noah home.
Silvestri and Ruth added that they want to reiterate that this situation shows that it is possible to find a hero dog at local animal shelters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.