LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Floydada 7-year-old Hunter Wells loves to watch The Incredibles, but he's known as a superhero in West Texas. 'Heroic Hunter' thought he may never see his sidekick again, though, after his therapy dog went missing last week.

The fear of losing a pet is distressing for anyone, but the feeling was even scarier for the family, who thought their son had lost his best friend, the dog who helped him overcome cancer.

At four years old, Hunter was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. He met a therapy dog in the hospital, and knew he needed one at home. After his first stem cell transplant, his parents, Robert and Kayla, gave him River, a Golden Retriever.

River has been with Hunter for another transplant and a relapse two years ago. Hunter is now in remission, but he's struggling with side effects of his treatment and graft versus host disease.

He spent five days in the hospital last week. That's when one evening, his dad came home and River was gone.

"He's never ran off before, so it was very peculiar as to how or why all of a sudden he would just be gone," Kayla said.

Their friends in Floydada began the search, driving down country roads, putting up posters and sharing on social media.

After several days, the Wells felt like River wasn't coming home. Then Monday night, they got a disturbing voicemail from someone they didn't know, claiming they found River dead on the side of the road. Kayla's friend looked into the number and found it was linked to known scammers.

"It was kind of an emotional roller coaster, really, to go from thinking, ok, it's 6:30 in the morning, our dog is dead. We're going to have to figure out how to deal with that. To, ok, it's 10:00 a. m., and that's a scammer, and maybe your dog is still alive," she said.

Only fifteen minutes later, someone called saying they spotted River on their farm. While he was skinny, skunk-sprayed and matted, River was coming home.

"The only thing that matters is that that River came home and and that he's safe. And the finders were so kind and didn't want the reward. We we tried to pay them and they they didn't want it. They said we were just glad that Hunter has his buddy back."

Now that his sidekick is back, River is helping Hunter feel a little more like himself. The incredible family can focus on helping 'Heroic Hunter' grow stronger.

"We say our prayers every night and we always pray that our lungs are stronger and our body is stronger and our hearts are braver and we can get through any hard thing together," Kayla said.