Here is a heartwarming story, if ever there was one! A 73-year-old Japanese woman who went missing from her home in Ibaraki Prefecture made it through a freezing cold night with the help of a lost dog.

She is believed to have stayed outside overnight with the dog. “Her life was probably saved by the body heat of the dog,” a police officer said, pointing out that she was wearing only a thin sweater and a jacket. According to a local meteorological observatory, the lowest temperature Wednesday night around the area plunged into the sub-zero level. The male dog does not belong to the woman but seemed very attached to her, police said.

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The dog, whose name is “Ushi” — which means “cow” in Japanese — has since been reunited with his owners. (See a picture of Ushi in this Japanese article.)