Gregorio Romero, an 84-year-old man from Mexico’s Sonora state, owes his life to his pet dog, El Palomo, who led rescuers to him after becoming lost in the desert for a week.

On November 27, Gregorio Romero left his home in Moctezuma to go for a walk, but he didn’t come back. His family wasn’t concerned at first, as the octogenarian sometimes used to visit nearby villages in the area and return a few days later. However, after four days, the man’s niece, Ramona, alerted the authorities about his disappearance, and a search party was put together. They searched the area around Romero’s home, but a week after his disappearance, the octogenarian was nowhere to be found. In the end, it was the man’s faithful pet dog that saved the day.

The Mexican National Guard, the Municipal Police, the Municipal Civil Protection Unit, and even a trained sniffer dog were brought in to search for Romero, a.k.a. Don Goyo, but after scouring the area around his Sonora home for over three days, they had nothing to show for it.  That’s when the man’s loyal pet dog, El Palomo, was brought in as a last resort.

According to one member of the search party, the brown mongrel led them through hills and ravines to the place where Gregorio Romero had become stranded after wandering aimlessly through the desert. His niece told authorities that Don Goyo sometimes had lapses in memory and it is presumed that this caused him to lose his way while on his walk.

The visibly weakened and dehydrated man was rushed to a hospital of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) where he spent two days getting back on his feet. The Prosecutor’s Office tweeted that “El Palomo’ remained by the hospital door day and night waiting for the recovery of his beloved Don Goyo”.

“The unconditional love of his pet allowed Don Goyo to be reunited with his family because it was ‘El Palomo’ who led the authorities to where he was,” the Prosecutor’s Office tweeted, along with a photo of El Palomo by Don Goyo’s side after he returned home.