Toddler goes missing after wandering in wilderness with family dogs, parents find her hours later using her doggo as a precious pupper pillow: 'She has those dogs wrapped around her finger'

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Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jan 26, 2025 11:00 AM EST

One of our recurring nightmares is our children going missing - this applies to our children with two legs and to those with four. We're very careful, but accidents happen all the time, we only have two eyes and two hands, so sometimes things slip through the cracks. Luckily it hasn't happened to us, but we can't say the same for everyone. But, just like in a Disney movie, this story has a happy ending that is almost too cute to believe. 

One of the best decisions we made was having a kid in a multi-dog household. Not only did our kids grow up learning about animals, how to treat them and love them, but they were also the best babysitters we could have asked for. When the tiny toddler in this story accidentally wandered into the wilderness with her two doggos, her parents started to panic. They searched for her, and thankfully, found her more than three miles away, safely asleep using her doggo as a pillow. Scroll down to read the whole story below!

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10458521600
    via Courtesy Brooke Chase

  • We're not sure there is another bond on this planet more wholesome than the bond between a child and their pet. Both are so innocent and full of love. Both want to play and make each other smile. Having dogs while having a baby was the best choice (for us, anyway). Not only do they keep them safe, they are a permanent playmate for when we're tired and want to rest!

  • 02
    When Chase and her brother-in-law realized Thea wasn't in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling Chase's husband and police. "When we get a call like that, everything else stops," Giannunzio said.
    via Macie Goldfarb / CNN
  • 03
    Michigan State Police put out requests for drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams, while members of the close-knit community formed their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, Giannunzio said.
    via Macie Goldfarb / CNN
  • 04
    Around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Thea on an all-terrain vehicle came across the Chase family's Rottweiler, Buddy, who started barking as he approached, according to Chase.
    via Macie Goldfarb / CNN
  • 05
    The 2-year-old was discovered a short way off the trail, sleeping on the ground with her head atop Hartley, the family's English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled, Chase said. "She has those dogs wrapped around her finger," the mother said.
    via Macie Goldfarb / CNN
  • 06
    Cheezburger Image 10458522368
    via Courtesy Brooke Chase

  • Members of the animal community chimed in with their takes on the story. Scroll down to see more heartwarming stories of doggos saving children and praise for these perfect puppers!

  • 07
    4d3d3d3_Engaged When my youngest sister was a toddler, she had finally figured out how to open the doors. We lived on about 30 acres and this was during the summer so the grass in the fields was about waist high.
    via u/4d3d3d3_Engaged
  • 08
    She let herself out and nobody knew it. My mom's Chinese Shar Pei stayed right with her as she walked out into the field.
    via u/4d3d3d3_Engaged
  • 09
    The neighbors had an open invite to use our pond for fishing. One of them had just so happened to be headed to the pond on his four-wheeler at that same time. About 500 yards from our house, he noticed our dog walking in the tall grass.
    via u/4d3d3d3_Engaged
  • 10
    He knew our dog wasn't an "outside dog" so he headed over to get him back inside. This is when he notices my baby sister in nothing but a tee shirt and a diaper.
    via u/4d3d3d3_Engaged
  • 11
    Our dog had stayed with her step-by- step. If it wasn't for the dog, who knows what would have happened. He was the goodest boy, for sure.
    via u/4d3d3d3_Engaged
  • 12
    tjean5377 Hartley growled at the rescuer to protect his little girl!!! →
    via u/tjean5377
  • 13
    BiBoFieTo 3 miles barefoot The same way my parents walked to school.
    via u/BiBoFieTo
  • 14
    middleagerioter FINALLY! An article with pics of the dogs. Buddy and Hartley better be having steak for dinner a LOT from now on.
    via u/middleagerioter
  • 15
    blue_alien_police "She has those dogs wrapped around her finger," the mother said. This quote is the best. I can just imagine the girl going "come on" and the dogs going "we will follow you till the end of the earth and beyond tiny human." I'm glad everyone is okay.
    via u/blue_alien_police
  • 16
    Ande64 The worst hour of My Life as a mother of four children is when my three- year-old son disappeared out of my backyard one day. One minute he's in the house, I say I'm going to throw some together some lunch and he goes outside to play on our trampoline, I go to call him in when Lunch is ready and he's gone. I've
    via u/Ande64
  • 17
    never been that hysterical in my life. The thing I didn't realize is that my dog was also gone because I was so worried about him. He was safely found around the corner about a block away in a neighbor's backyard with my dog very much protecting him. The fascinating part of this is that this dog. was a shelter dog we had adopted who was highly aggressive toward all
    via u/Ande64
  • 18
    other dogs but sweet as pie towards people and cats. She had to be contained at all times when she was around other dogs otherwise she'd be a little nuts. This is a very tight-knit neighborhood and apparently several of my neighbors saw my son and dog walking and saw them pass other dogs and my dog never once reacted because she was too busy protecting my son. To this day that was the best damn dog I ever had.
    via u/Ande64
  • 19
    yamirzmmdx Good dog. You don't see Lassie actually jumping into the well to save the kid!
    via u/yamirzmmdx
  • 20
    DawnSennin That entire story sounds like an episode of Rugrats.
    via u/DawnSennin
  • 21
    daisybunny I took off at this age with our wiener dog while my mom went into the backyard to water her garden and I was just inside the door watching Disney channel lol. Me and the dog managed to get half a mile through our suburban neighborhood before my distressed mom and the neighbors found us!!! Toddlers are escape artists lol
    via u/daisybunny
  • 22
    meshreplacer Thank god she had her canine guardian angels. Who knows what could have happened without them.
    via u/meshreplacer
  • 23
    awozie Sounds like a Disney movie
    via u/awozie

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Pillow wholesome dogs heartwarming toddler pupper Precious doggo family lost animals parents
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