QUEENSLAND, Australia (Seven Network/CNN) - A family's distress has turned to relief when a toddler who went missing from a rural property was found safe and well.
Little Aurora Kyle spent 15 hours lost on a huge piece of property, but she wasn't alone.
The family's cattle dog, Max, stood by her side during the entire ordeal.
"The dog came to my feet, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I've found the dog.' So I yelled out, 'I've found the dog,' and the dog led me straight to her," her worried grandmother, Leisa Bennett, said.
Auroro had been missing for 15 hours with no food and no water.
Police and strangers came to search, but the search was suspended at 1:30 a.m. Saturday until sunrise.
"You watch ... police leave, and you think, 'Oh my God, she's out there somewhere in the dark, a 3-year-old baby,'" Bennett said.
The girl was lost on a property seven times the size of Monaco, with several dams and one steep ,woody mountain.
"Her uncle was sitting on a stump, and he said, 'Oh, I'm trying to think like a 3-year-old,' and he said, 'I think she's gone that way,'" Bennett said.
He went the opposite direction to rescuers.
"I was yelling out to her, and I hear this 'yeeeaa?' and I said, 'I need you to say Granby,' beccause that's my name, and she yelled out, 'Granby.' And I said, 'We've got her. Oh my God, we've got her,'" Bennett said.
Aurora heard people calling her name. She saw the search lights and helicopters,
"The dog kept pulling her towards the lights, and she said, 'I held him and we slept together,' and she slept with the dog. And she said, 'I had a good sleep, Granby,'" Bennett said.
Max became a hero and protector for a sleepy little girl in a T-shirt on a 13 degree Celcius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) night, far from home.
Max is partially blind and deaf. He's two years older than the average life expectancy for cattle dogs.
"I don't think I'll doubt that dog ever again because he is a great little dog," said the girl's uncle, Jack Miller.
Max is now an honorary police dog.
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