RANCHER’S DOG RESCUES TODDLER LOST IN THE DESERT Desert Hero
A tiny desert town along Route 66 in Arizona is home to a new hero — a big, shaggy ranch dog who rescued a toddler lost in the desert this past April. Two-year-old Boden Allen was missing from his Seligman, Arizona, home for 16 hours when a 6-year-old Anatolian Pyrenees named Buford appeared in his master’s driveway with the child at his side — 7 miles from Boden’s home. Buford’s owner, Scotty Dunton, had heard about the child’s disappearance. “I noticed my dog was sitting by the entrance (to his ranch),” he said, “and the little kid’s standing there with my dog!” He calmed the child, who was unharmed except for a few scrapes and nicks, and gave him water and food while calling authorities. Dunton was overjoyed. “I was ecstatic that he was okay and that my dog found him,” he said.
Dunton asked Boden if he had been walking all night, and the child told him no, he had been lying under a tree. “Did my dog find you?” Dunton asked Boden. He wasn’t surprised when the child said yes. Dunton traced the little boy’s tracks more than a mile from his ranch, with Buford’s paw prints beside them. “That’s what he does,” Dunton said of Buford. “He loves kids. I can imagine he wouldn’t leave him when he found him.” Dunton’s discovery of the little boy ended an anxious 16-hour search by more than 40 search-and-rescue volunteers, sheriff’s deputies, and state public-safety officers. Wearing only a tank top and pajama pants, Boden had wandered away at about 5 p.m. into rugged desert terrain, where two mountain lions were spotted later that night. Boden’s frantic parents had reported his absence to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.
Dunton says he wasn’t surprised by Buford’s protective behavior. “He is a guardian dog. He patrols all night and keeps coyotes away,” he says. The Anatolian Pyrenees is a crossbreed, a combination of a Great Pyrenees and an Anatolian shepherd, known for its intelligence, gentleness, and protective nature. In appreciation for their neighborhood hero, Buford’s admirers piled chew toys, bones, and other gifts on Dunton’s doorstep for days after the rescue.
High Driver Turnover Haunts the Trucking Industry DRIVER DRAIN
with Kris Kristofferson cast professional truck drivers as heroes of the open road. Now, these drivers have retired, and the generations coming up behind them have a stronger preference for more time at home and less
strenuous lifestyles. Also, drivers say rising traffic congestion, unloading delays, in-cab safety technology, and urbanization have made their jobs harder.
A longstanding shortage of truck drivers appears to have eased in recent months. Job market statistics show a slight but steady decline in open trucking jobs. However, high trucker turnover continues to cause problems, as more drivers walk away from life on the open road. Although 400,000 new commercial driver’s licenses are issued in the United States every year, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, federal data show that about 300,000 drivers exit the industry each year. And analysts predict continuing problems retaining experienced drivers amid a shift in drivers’ preferences and values.
A boom-and-bust cycle caused by the pandemic has made the problem worse. Exaggerated reports of a truck driver shortage helped spark a near-doubling of for-hire carriers between 2020 and 2023. While an increase in demand for goods and a drop in diesel costs sustained these new entrants for a while, freight rates soon dropped, driving many of them out of business. Also, truckers’ groups say that as industry veterans retire, inexperienced drivers, who are more likely to cause safety problems, replace them. They argue that freight companies need to improve pay, benefits, and leave time at home to retain drivers. Driving big rigs is a hard job, and that Hollywood luster of the late 1970s has faded. All that suggests the industry churn is likely to continue.
Many older drivers entered the industry decades ago, after films like “Smokey and the Bandit” with Burt Reynolds and “Convoy”
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