A former shelter dog has made the news for helping rescue a three-year-old girl found naked in a ditch and exposed to the winter weather in Michigan, United States. The dog’s owner said Peanut had led him to a field in Upper Michigan, where he found the child on March 20.

In a message to Delta Animal Shelter, from where Peanut was adopted, the owner said the dog had a “sixth sense” and had started barking and running around to indicate that she wanted to go out of the house. The owner said he had wrapped the shivering child in his shirt and run home. “By the time the ambulance and police arrived, the little girl could only say one thing – ‘doggie.’”

A Facebook post by the local police confirmed the rescue and said the girl’s parents were found living in the neighbourhood with another child in “unsanitary conditions”. The children have been “removed from the residence”, the statement said.

Peanut had arrived at the shelter in April 2016 with two broken legs, a stomach full of carpet and broken ribs, a post on the shelter’s page said.