New Jersey Mom 'Breathless' After Being Reunited With Missing 4-Year-Old Son Who Was Guarded by His Trusty Dog

Little four-year-old Parker was lost in the woods and his mother was beside herself. She could hear him crying, but couldn't find him in the dense trees.

A New Jersey mother said she was "thanking God in my heart" as she scooped up her missing 4-year-old son who had gone missing in dense woods near their home.

"I was just breathless," she tells Inside Edition. "I was thanking God in my heart."

Little Parker had wandered from his Buena Vista Township home with his trusty black Lab named Toby. His mom, Victoria, went looking for him, and could hear him crying but couldn't see him in the thick woods.

She called for help. Trooper Ian Emmi arrived on the scene, just as it was getting dark. 

Travis had been missing for about an hour when the little boy appeared in a clearing, crying and disheveled and missing a shoe.

The trooper called out and ran up to him, his mother in tow. "I lost my shoe!" Travis wailed. His mother scooped him up.

Little Parker is obsessed with footwear, Victoria says. 

"He picks out his shoes. He loves his shoes," she says. "He certainly has a thing about his shoes."

And Toby, the black Labrador that never left Parker's side, is now the family's hero. Parker's missing shoe, unlike him, was not found. So his parents took him to pick out a new pair of very cool-looking Nikes, which he proudly displayed to the camera.

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