Loyal puppy guides rescuers to missing toddler in Victoria
A pet dog named Poppy has guided rescuers to a toddler who went missing for nearly seven hours south-east of Melbourne.
Two-year-old Sophia Cook was wearing only a T-shirt and a nappy when she wandered from her family’s Crossover farm house around 7.30pm on Tuesday night.
When her family realised that their loyal puppy had also disappeared, they hoped that she was keeping Sophia safe.
“It made me feel better because I thought at last she can stay with her, keep her warm and it makes her easier to find,” her grandmother Vera Cook told 7 News.
Luckily the toddler was found alive and well after a frantic search.
“Straight away I had the canine units on the way the police air wing were notified and search and rescue had mobilised an on call team,” Police sergeant Grame Carter said.
More than one hundred people were involved in the search, including CFA and SES volunteers as well as neighbours and family members.
“When they didn’t seem to find her from that I was starting to almost lose hope and thinking maybe she was abducted not missing,” Ms Cook said.
There were serious concerns for little Sophia’s safety as there are snakes, wombat holes, barbed wire fences and several dams in the paddocks surrounding the farm house.
The scariest moment in the search was when a thermal imaging device detected a heat source in a dam.
But footprints were then found heading away from the dam, which eventually led the search crews to Poppy and Sophia.
The pair were in a paddock about 500 metres away from the farm house.
“Ultimately the dog was the one that alerted us to her presence, because one of the search and rescue guys heard it barking, so yeah good result,” sergeant Carter said.
Sophia was taken to Warragul hospital where she spent the night recovering from the ordeal.
News break – December 23
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