FAITHORN, Mich. – A 2-year-old girl who walked away from her home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula alongside two family dogs was found in the woods hours later sleeping on the smaller dog like a furry pillow, state police said.

“She laid down and used one of the dogs as a pillow, and the other dog laid right next to her and kept her safe,” Lt. Mark Giannunzio said Thursday. “It’s a really remarkable story.”

Troopers used drones and police dogs in the search while local police and citizens from both Michigan and adjacent Wisconsin helped look for the girl in the remote wooded area.

Troopers from Michigan State Police’s Iron Mountain post had been called to a home in the Faithorn area of Menominee County about 8 p.m. Wednesday after the girl wandered away.

Around midnight, a citizen on an ATV found the girl about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from her home, state police said.

Giannunzio said the girl was checked by medical staff and appeared to be in good health.

Faithorn is an unincorporated village located just east of the Wisconsin state line and about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Marquette, Michigan.

  • @SpeedLimit55
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    759 months ago

    Dang 3 miles away is crazy, good thing those dogs stayed with her.

  • @ikidd
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    369 months ago

    Our family has a story about an uncle of mine that spent a winter night (in Northern Alberta) in the bush nearby the farmhouse when he was 3. The dog was credited with keeping him alive. He lived another 91 years and always treated dogs very well.

    • @CluckN
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      519 months ago

      That’s crazy, 91 is very old for a dog.

      • @ikidd
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        29 months ago

        Nice.

  • Flying Squid
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    39 months ago

    …and they all lived happily ever after.

    Are you asleep, honey?

  • @poprocks
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    -29 months ago

    I’m glad she’s safe but how do parents lose sight of a toddler long enough for her to wander so far away? It seems like this happens quite frequently and I’m just baffled.

    • @jumperalex
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      369 months ago

      I don’t have kids, and perhaps you don’t either?

      I’m old enough with enough friend with kids, and recall being a 2yo myself, and I can say its INCREDIBLY easy to lose track of a 2yo. It only takes seconds to lose sight of them. How far they get after losing site isn’t an indicator of how long you weren’t paying attention, but how long you’ve been looking before finding them.

      • HubertManne
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        109 months ago

        I can lose sight of a tortoise by being distracted for 5 minutes. This is a legendarily slow creature (in reality they are like a reverse version of the stone angels from doctor who)

      • @[email protected]
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        109 months ago

        And they can be smart and dexterous enough to open locks by that age. They’re really a bit of a nightmare.

    • @[email protected]
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      219 months ago

      I put a screwdriver down beside me and have to take 2 minutes to find it. I couldn’t imagine if the screwdriver had legs.

    • BlackRing
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      199 months ago

      There’s losing sight, and then there’s trying to find it. I remember a short video where a toddler was wandering straight for a road, and someone happened to prevent a tragedy, and mom came running out of the house as the camera was still rolling.

      People were calling negligence, what a terrible mom, yadda yadda. No, that mom was running around the house looking for her kid, frantic as time passed. You just don’t think they can open the door that early. Manipulating a door latch or knob is a developmental milestone, plus, what if the door didn’t properly latch? Mom could just as easily looked outside first, but that would be counterintuitive.

      Also, “I thought you had him/her?” Is a real thing.

    • @[email protected]
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      129 months ago

      I have a 2 year old boy, and he could easily walk 3 miles if he wanted to. He can and does sneak away sometimes , and fast. And he can open doors and locks, and he has no fear or sense of danger.

    • Kalkaline
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      39 months ago

      Have you ever been around a toddler? Those kids can be sneaky and fast.

  • @bluu
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    -49 months ago

    Cute and sweet and all, and I’m glad she’s okay. Really. But I’m not sure that “we couldn’t find our child for a few hours” is news-worthy.

    • @Ace0fBlades
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      439 months ago

      There’s so much bad news out there, I’m happy for a little good news every once in a while

    • @darganon
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      209 months ago

      At least not without pictures of the dog.

    • Dettweiler
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      89 months ago

      It’s a very big deal for a small town.

    • @[email protected]
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      59 months ago

      It’s local news, and it involved a search and usage of police resources. The news is for reporting on things that happened. Not everything is global scale news.

      The atrophy of local news is a big part of why things like school boards and city councils have been overrun with absolute nutjobs.

    • @sanmarzano
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      59 months ago

      What’s newsworthy is that the cops didn’t shoot the dogs on sight

    • Brkdncr
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      29 months ago

      This happened to me pretty much the same and it didn’t even make local news.

    • Ech
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      29 months ago

      Then downvote and move on. Stop trying to gatekeep.

      • @jose1324
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        -19 months ago

        How is this gatekeeping. Man lemmy nolifers are worse than reddit ngl