Three-year-old girl goes missing; deaf pet dog accompanies her until being found

A deaf and partially blind pet dog remained by the side of its three-year-old owner after the girl went missing in the rugged bushland in Queensland's Southern Downs, Australia.

The old blue heeler named Max led rescuers to her. The girl and her dog spent over 15 hours in the bushland overnight, ABC reported.

The kid, Aurora, went missing April 20 at around 3 pm, after she wandered off on her own, More than 100 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers started looking for the child on April 21. They found the girl safe and well with the dog, Max, at 8:00 am.

Max has been now declared an honorary police dog for keeping the little girl safe. Aurora's grandfather, Kelly Benston said that her partner Leisa Bennett and other rescuers heard the kid's voice faintly from the top of a mountain early Saturday morning.

"She found the dog first. Max led her to Aurora," Kelly said. "Max is 17 years old, deaf and partially blind."

Aurora and Max were spotted about two kilometers from the house, SES area controller Ian Phipps confirmed. "The area around the house is quite mountainous and is very inhospitable terrain to go walking in, so she'd traveled quite a distance with her dog that was quite loyal to her," he said.

Philips mentioned that the search was quite difficult because "the volunteers and the police were, amongst the very steep slopes full of lantana and other vegetation." Leisa tracked her down after the kid responded to her shouting. She heard her voice calling out "Grammy", and she just knew it was her, for sure.

She said: "I shot up the mountain ... and when I got to the top, the dog came to me and led me straight to her. He never left her sight. She smelled of dog, she slept with the dog."