Girl, 2, missing overnight in Maine, found safe in woods

Tom Shultz called it ``a very happy ending to the Fourth of July."

At the urging of his wife, Shultz roamed the pine tree-filled woods behind his log cabin home in Warren, Maine, hiking more than 100 feet down a hill and crossing a brook with a beaver dam -- all in search yesterday of 2-year-old Katie Grant .

Shultz was one of hundreds of volunteers, sheriff's deputies, and park wardens who searched starting Monday night for the little girl, who wandered into the woods with two family dogs.

Ten dog -aided search teams, two helicopters with infrared sensors, and a float plane capable of landing in water aided in the search through the area of firs and pine trees.

Shultz found Katie around 8 a.m. yesterday about a half-mile from his home.

She had taken her shorts off, was barefoot, and was wearing a diaper and pink shirt while sleeping next to her family's 5-month-old yellow Labrador.

Shultz said Katie had a few bug bites and scratches, but did not appear harmed.

She was treated and released from Pen Bay Medical Center in Camden, said Lieutenant Patrick Dorian of the Maine Warden Service.

The helicopters, however, appeared too loud for Katie.

``When I picked her up, she gave me a hug and covered her ears because of the thunderous planes and helicopters above," Shultz, 53, owner of the Green Thumb store in Rockport, Maine, said in a telephone interview.

Katie and her family, of Sanford, Maine, were visiting relatives when she went missing around 7 p.m. Monday, Dorian said.

She apparently strolled into the woods with two family dogs, Dorian said. One dog returned to the home Monday night, but without Katie or the puppy.

After searching for an hour for Katie, the family notified officials. Katie's parents could not be reached for comment yesterday.

``I suspect Katie and the dog snuggled up together overnight," Dorian said. ``It is my understanding that they were inseparable. I was surprised she was still asleep in the morning. I figured with the puppy being there, she would be active following the puppy."

Shultz said he didn't realize that a search was underway until a low-flying plane circling his house caught his attention at around 5 a.m. ``This plane was flying about 400 feet off the ground and was buzzing our house," he said.

Shultz had planned to go to his store to water petunias, geraniums, and other plants in the store's 16 greenhouses. But after his wife, Alice, learned of the search for Katie from officials at the site, she suggested that they search in the woods behind their house.

``I just assumed nobody had looked back there," Alice Shultz , 51, said. ``Call it intuition, divine intervention, I don't know. I just felt we needed to look back there."

Tom Shultz decided to take the lead on the search, he said, because he's lived in the home for 20 years and is familiar with the wooded terrain.

``She's a lucky little girl," he said.

Globe correspondent Yuxing Zheng contributed to this report.