3-year-old Christopher Ramirez of Plantersville, Texas, was found alive Saturday morning after an extensive search conducted by the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy had vanished into the woods in Grimes County on Wednesday afternoon while chasing a neighbor’s dog as his mother unloaded groceries at their home.

A landowner found him at about 11:15 a.m. in a wooded area, approximately 6.5 miles away from where the toddler first went missing.

Paramedics and the boy’s mother went to meet him along a roadside near where he was found. He was then taken to Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands for evaluation.

“He was smiling and drinking water,” Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said. “He was alive, laughing, cutting up, crying. His mother was crying.”