A four year old Cedar County girl is running and playing, one week after a close call that could have been a nightmare. Family members call it a miracle, but a smart dog and a quick thinking dad have a lot to do with this happy ending. Ky3's Linda Russell joins us with the amazing story.

Four year-old Bailey Shouse is a happy, energetic little girl, and her loved ones are so thankful she's still that same little girl, after an ordeal at the family pond last Saturday, that could have taken her life. Bailey Shouse is running and playing with her dogs once again. One of them, a black lab named Sky, helped make sure she would be around to play. It all happened one week ago, at the Shouse's rural Cedar County home.

"Bailey had come outside. I was still inside. I'd got a phone call," says her dad, Justin. Justin could see Bailey and the dogs chasing each other around the yard. He even stepped out onto the porch, watching them play. "I saw Bailey and the dog go around the back side of the house. I went back in. My wife said breakfast was almost ready. I come back out and hollered for Bailey, and she didn't show up."

After checking out the front door and the back door, one of the family's three dogs came running up from the pond. "So I put my shoes on and ran down there, and when I got there, I found this dog pulling Bailey out of the pond," Justin says.

No one knows what was going through Sky's head at that moment, but Justin and Bailey had been training the 3 year old lab to go duck hunting, and that may be the reason she retrieved Bailey from the water.

But the fight to save Bailey wasn't over there. It was now up to her father. "At that moment, Bailey wasn't breathing. She was lifeless, so I started CPR, and then I knew I had to make the call, so I threw her over my shoulder and run back up here with her and told my wife to call 911. She was still lifeless, so I started CPR again; 3 revolutions of CPR and she come back to," Justin says.

If it weren't for Justin breathing life back into his daughter, Bailey's story today could be much different. She was airlifted to a Springfield hospital, where she spent a few days, but couldn't wait to come back home. And play with her four legged friends. And now, the family values Sky for much more than her hunting skills. "There's no money that could buy this dog," says Justin.

Justin says he learned CPR through work with a Kansas City labor union. He says from the time he took that phone call to the time his wife called 9-1-1 was seven minutes. It all happened very fast, and doctor's say if Bailey had been without oxygen for more than 5 minutes, she most likely would have brain damage. They say she has none.