Hero dog saves Russian toddler’s life by keeping him warm after he was left outside in -21C temperatures for 48 hours

A hero dog kept a two-year old-boy alive for two days after the child was cruelly abandoned by his mother.

The infant was left all alone in the unheated porch of his home in the Altai region of Russia.

Local officials said the ‘hero’ dog was a ‘saviour’ to the child, keeping him as warm as possible for two days before neighbours found him.

The boy shivered in temperatures averaging minus 12C, dipping to a chilling minus 21C, and was wearing only light clothes.

The child was reported last night to have suffered acute hypothermia during his ordeal but was responding well to treatment in hospital.

The boy was forced to endure a 48 hour ordeal without food, with his mother returning four days after he was found

‘The mother faces a potential jail sentence and losing the right to raise her child,’ The Siberian Times reports.

‘She is being investigated in a criminal case, accused of deliberately abandoning her child.’

None of those involved in the horrific case have been named.