Much of the beauty of life is to be found in its unpredictability, the fact that unexpected things can happen at any given time, and that our experiences on this Earth can drastically change from one day to the next.
Now, we'll accept that such unpredictability isn't always favorable; tragedy and heartbreak linger around the same corner as joy and happiness. But it's exactly that sense of not knowing what challenges await us that best colors our existence.
Just ask Ted Rutherford, who was walking his dog through the woods in Glen Burnie, Maryland back in July 2021. It seemed a walk like any other, indeed a day like any other.
What Ted wasn't to know, though, was that his life was about to be temporarily turned upside down when he was thrust into a situation quite unlike any other he had ever experienced…
Ted Rutherford was reportedly out walking his dog on a woodland bike path when he heard noises coming from the bushes. His first thought was that a wounded animal was crying out in distress, but when he moved closer his heart leapt into his mouth.
The source of the noise wasn't a wild animal at all, but a human baby who had recently been abandoned. At first glance, Ted could tell the baby girl was newly born.
"The placenta and all the, you know, the fluids and all were in like a grocery bag, a little plastic bag, and it was tied up around the umbilical cord," Rutherford said at the time.
As I'm sure many of our readers can understand, the situation was one the dog walker had never expected to find himself in. Unsure of what to do, he sought help from a nearby resident who happened to be outside watering his plants.
Together, Ted and the neighbor tried to remove the baby from the dense brush, only to be impeded by sticker bushes.
They soon called 911, and officers with the Anne Arundel County Police Department were able to remove the newborn and transport her to a nearby hospital for further treatment.
Incredibly, the baby in question was reportedly healthy and doing well despite the harrowing circumstances of her first few hours on this Earth. She'd suffered minor scratches from the sticker bushes she had been left in, but was otherwise unharmed and able to make a full recovery.
At the time of Ted's discovery, the baby's mother was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, however, she was identified and located the very next day, and went on to receive medical treatment and crisis intervention resources.
Lord only knows the struggles this baby's mother must have been going through to leave her newborn out in the woods alone, but we hope and pray she was able to turn things around.
See more in the video below:
As for Ted, what a hero! I dread to imagine what might have happened if he had decided to simply ignore the noise and continue walking.
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