Dozens searched for a missing 2-year-old in the Arizona desert. Buford the dog was the real hero.

The rescue made him a hero — and earned Buford, a 6-year-old Anatolian Pyrenees, a hero’s dinner.

The rescue made him a hero — and earned Buford, a 6-year-old Anatolian Pyrenees, a hero’s dinner.

“He got a 2-pound rib-eye last night,” Buford’s owner, Scotty Dunton, said Wednesday. “He’s just a cool, cool dog.”

Buford earned the meal after he wandered home Tuesday morning with a 2-year-old boy who disappeared the day before from his home in Seligman, Arizona, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

Dunton’s ranch, in a remote part of the state roughly 100 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park, is 7 miles from the boy’s home, according to the sheriff’s office, which noted that dozens of search-and-rescue personnel and deputies had spent the night searching for him.

The sheriff's office posted details of the disappearance at 11:08 p.m. Monday. As of 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, the sheriff's office said, the toddler had been found and was safe.