TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- An exhausted elderly man was in desperate need of help and his little dog may have saved his life. The 85-year-old man with Alzheimer's wandered away from a Titusville assisted living center Friday with his pet.

The man was walking his dog and had taken his dog off of the leash when the dog jumped into murky water. The elderly man tried to get him and fell in, ending up stuck until his dog ultimately got him help.

Deep in swampland in the center of town, police finished their search Friday, pulling out a shivering Chihuahua named Tank. Tank's discovery ended an afternoon of despair.

An hour before, police found the dog's owner in the very same swamp in water up beyond his waist. Authorities said 85-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer Loren Burnett walked away from the Sandy Point Senior Living Center in Titusville and vanished.

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Police said the center waited an hour before calling for help.

"We got right on it. Every available officer was sent. We started calling people in," said Cdr. Todd Hutchinson, Titusville Police Department.

Police started combing the neighborhood and then they saw Tank and recognized it was Burnett's dog.

"They followed the dog into a very thick swampy area and they were able to recover him," Hutchinson said.

Police said Tank was key and Burnett didn't look like he was in good shape.

"If we didn't find the guy when we did, he could have suffered serious injuries," Hutchinson said.

But as authorities were tending to him, the dog got away and disappeared. Then, a few hours later, there was a sighting. Somehow, in the same swampy area where his owner was found, Tank was rediscovered and taken away to be reunited.

A spokesperson for the Sandy Point Senior Living Center said Burnett lives in an independent living section of the center and is free to leave the property and walk his dog. Staff noticed he was missing when he didn't show up for lunch and they said they immediately called his family and police.

Eyewitness News did check with the state and could not find any complaints filed against the living center in the past few years.