Lost boy's faithful dog rides and walks beside his casket

Hundreds of people — many of them strangers — gathered on Monday in Sydney, N.S., for the funeral of a seven-year-old Cape Breton boy who died after wandering away from his home just before a snowstorm.

An honour guard of several dozen police officers, firefighters, paramedics and ground search crews lined the church steps and stood at attention as pallbearers carried the casket of the little boy into the church.



The boy's dog, Chance, was led into the church behind the casket. Chance sat in the front passenger seat of the hearse and could be seen poking his head out the window as the funeral procession made its way through the neighbourhood.

James, who had autism and did not speak, went missing on Dec. 5 after following Chance into the woods. Hundreds of volunteers and search and rescue crew members descended on South Bar, near Sydney, to look for the boy during the snowstorm that began shortly after his disappearance.



Chance returned to the family home two days later, sparking renewed hope in the search for James. As one team of searchers followed Chance's tracks back into the woods, another team working from the opposite direction found James.

He was huddled in the fetal position in an area of thick brush and snow about a kilometre from his home. Unconscious and suffering from severe hypothermia, he died early the next day after he was rushed to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax in critical condition. There was an imprint in the snow next to where James was found, where Chance had apparently huddled with the boy to keep him warm.

There's a news video here.