K-9 that recently joined police force helps reunite missing child with Virginia family Christmas morning

This police dog was the real Santa paws for one Virginia family.

A K-9 member who recently joined the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office from Greece helped find a missing child who had wandered from their home in the wee hours of Christmas morning, authorities said.

A sergeant and the sharp-sniffing police dog named Maxa responded to the home in Madison Heights Monday after family members couldn’t locate their young relative, the sheriff’s office said.

“Once on scene, K-9 Maxa was able to find and track the scent of the juvenile,” the sheriff’s office said of the female German Shorthaired Pointer.

“The track led deputies to a nearby wooded area where K-9 Maxa found the missing juvenile unharmed.”

The hero dog, only a year-and-a-half-old, became a member of the sheriff’s department in October after she and her handler became certified in narcotics detection, article searches and tracking, the sheriff’s office previously noted.

Madison Heights is about 115 miles from Virginia’s capital city, Richmond.