In Texas last month, emergency responders witnessed the touching animal loyalty that perhaps only a dog can exemplify.

A Mason County ambulance was transporting an 85-year-old rancher to the hospital, when 20 miles into their journey EMS technician Tanner Brown said a driver flagged them down and told them there was a dog hanging onto the side of the vehicle.

The San Angelo Times reports that Buddy, a small Beagle mix, had "hitched a ride on the small side step of the ambulance to be with his owner, JR Nicholson."

"We didn't have anything else to do but to load the dog up and put him in the ambulance and take him to the ER with us," Brown said.

(READ the story from the San Angelo Times)

Photo by Tanner Brown – Story tip from Kelly Harrington