Missing toddler winds up in the dog house - in more ways than one

A 1 1/2-year-old girl who wandered away from her day care Monday afternoon was found safe about 15 minutes later, sleeping in a dog house at a neighboring home.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff's department, assisted by officers from the State Patrol, the Baxter and Brainerd police department, North Ambulance personnel and Brainerd firefighters, received the report of the missing girl at 11:22 a.m. The girl, it was reported, had walked away from her day care provider's residence on the 10000 of River Hills Circle, near the Mississippi River east of Crow Wing County Road 3 just north of Brainerd.

The child was found at 11:38 a.m. sleeping in a dog house at a neighbor's home approximately two homes north of the day care, the sheriff's department reported, and she appeared to be in good physical health and was reunited with her mother at the scene.