Little girl found after 22 hours tells cops: "I love it in the woods!"

It's a miraculous end to a terrifying situation for any parent. Two-year-old Brooklyn Lilly wandered away from her Michigan home this week when an elderly caretaker lost track of her. After 22 terrifying hours the toddler was recovered by a police dog with just a scratch on her face.

A feat that law enforcement officials told WNEM is a miracle. Brooklyn Lilly was lost in the woods in near freezing temperatures. A massive local search was launched and after nearly 24 hours the little girl approached assistant fire chief Jeffrey Seyfried and his German Shepherd. The dog was able to track Lilly through the woods.

"She was bundled up in her jacket and when the team walked up to her, she started giggling," Seyfried said. "She actually told one of the guys that she loved it in the woods."

Brooklyn was taken to the hospital for observation and her mother tells WNEM that she's in good spirits. When the dog found the toddler she was missing a boot, had a few blisters, a scratch and soaked from the waist down but was generally in good health.

Police dogs are often used to track missing people. According to the Ewing, New Jersey K9 unit, a dogs sense of smell is 200 to 400 times greater than a humans, German Shepherds in particular can search an area 4 times faster than humans and they can even tell the difference between identical twins.

Earlier this year, a police dog in Oregon recovered a missing 8-year-old autistic boy standing in the middle of a rough creek. Law enforcement said without the help of the K9 there was no telling how long it would have taken them to find the missing child.

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