Former shelter dog helps family discover lost 3-year-old girl Peanut barked and ran around until her owner followed her into a field.

 -- A former shelter dog may have helped save the life of a 3-year-old girl.

Peanut, who was adopted from the Delta Animal Shelter in Escanaba, Michigan, last April, managed to lead her new owners to a lost little girl on March 17, according to a letter the family sent to the shelter.

"Peanut started going crazy at our house," her new owner said in the letter, which was shared on the shelter's Facebook page. "She was running up the stairs, barking and yelping."

According to the letter, Peanut alerted the husband that she wanted to go outside and immediately took off at "full speed" into the field behind the house. There, the husband found a naked 3-year-old girl.

The Delta County Sheriff's Department, which responded to the incident after the girl had been brought inside, confirmed to ABC News that the 3-year-old was found with no clothes on. Officials then went door to door in an attempt to find the parents, and eventually located them in a nearby residence, according to a statement on the department's Facebook page.

"We have a lieutenant who was on scene and said it was the worst house he's seen in his career, condition-wise," Sheriff Edward Oswald told ABC News.

Officials contacted Child Protective Services, which have assumed care of the 3-year-old girl and another child found inside the home. Peanut's owners -- whose identities the shelter declined to disclose due to the ongoing police investigation -- credit her running and barking to their discovery of the girl.

"Thanks to Peanut, a little girl's life was saved today," the letter said. "She has been such a blessing to us, and now to others. Words cannot express how grateful we are that we have Peanut in our lives and how amazing she is."