Peanut the Rescue Dog Saves Neglected Toddler Found Wandering in Family's Yard

When one family found their new furry friend at an animal shelter, they had no idea just how incredible she would be. Peanut, who had been adopted from the Delta Animal Shelter in Escanaba, Michigan almost a year ago, has now been credited with saving the life of a little girl on March 17.

According to ABC News:

“Peanut started going crazy at our house,” her new owner said in the letter, which was shared on the shelter’s Facebook page. “She was running up the stairs, barking and yelping.”

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Peanut alerted the husband that she wanted to go outside and immediately took off at “full speed” into the field behind the house. There, the husband found a naked 3-year-old girl.

Upon finding the little girl, who was shivering and curled up in a ball, Peanut’s owners brought her inside and contacted the authorities. The Delta County Sheriff’s Department responded to the incident and officials from their office went door-to-door in search of the girl’s family. What they found was incredibly sad.

“We have a lieutenant who was on scene and said it was the worst house he’s seen in his career, condition-wise,” Sheriff Edward Oswald told ABC News.

Officials contacted Child Protective Services, which have assumed care of the 3-year-old girl and another child found inside the home.

According to the Delta Animal Shelter’s Facebook page, Peanut (formerly Petunia) “arrived at the shelter last April with 2 broken legs, a belly full of carpet, broken ribs….all injuries happened at different times. Healed, her former [was] owner recently convicted of animal abuse.”

Peanut’s current owners rescued their pup from a life of abuse, and the dog clearly paid forward that good deed by rescuing the missing girl. According to a letter that the owners sent the shelter,

Words cannot express how grateful we are that we have Peanut in our lives and how amazing she is. She is a part of our family now and thanks to wonderful people like you at the shelter, she is alive. Without her, not only would she have been gone from this world, but the life of this little girl might have been taken as well.