Malissa Sergent Lewis was on her way to work at an elementary school in Kentucky when she saw something unexpected blocking the road – a trash bag. She took a back road as a shortcut and was running late, so she didn’t have time to deal with this obstacle, but as she got closer, she realized that the bag was moving.
In an interview with The Dodo, Lewis said, “I saw this trash bag in the road, and I thought to myself, ‘Did I just see that bag move?’ The closer I got, I realized it was moving.”
Rather than being scared by this unusual sight, Lewis knew there was something alive in the trash bag, and she needed to get it out. She approached the bag with caution, knowing that there might be a wild animal inside.
To her surprise, when she untied the knot and tore the corner, a small puppy tumbled out of the trash bag. “It was a puppy. And he sure was glad to see me. As soon as I opened it up, and he saw light, he just started wagging his tail. He knew he was OK. I couldn’t believe it.”
Lewis took the puppy with her, putting him in her lap as she drove to school. She couldn’t leave him in the car, so she brought him inside with her. She also reported the incident to the local authority for fear that the puppy might have been stolen from its owner and left to die on the road.
“Who could do something like that to any animal? I don’t care who you are; everybody loves puppies,” she said. “It’s a real coldhearted person to put an animal, any animal, in a garbage bag and dump it on the side of the road. They had bad, bad intentions for doing that.”
Lewis named the puppy Hefty after the incident, and he now has a loving home with her family. “We all love the puppy,” Lewis said. “He’s going to be loved and have a good home with us. I’m just glad I was in the right place at the right time to save him. That’s what it was.”
