Likely, you’ve been there before. You make a decision to deviate slightly from your usual course of action at the last minute.

You switch up your coffee routine or leave the office a little sooner. The smallest shift in your daily routine can have a profound effect.

You unexpectedly run into a long-lost acquaintance, or you get home from work early and discover that your spouse has been cheating on you.

Sometimes the shifts are minor, and other times they’re monumental.

Something like what occurred to Malissa Sergent Lewis when she took a different route to work one day last summer.

Malissa Sergent Lewis was running late for work at her elementary school in Kentucky one morning in the summer of 2016.

Malissa wanted to get there faster, so she took a back road instead than the main highway.

Malissa will always be grateful for your choice.

That day, the road was empty, except for one thing: a trash bag.

But this was no ordinary garbage bag; it seemed to be alive.

“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,” Malissa told The Dodo.

Malissa felt she had to open the sack and see what was living inside.

Since she had no idea what was in the bag, she stepped out of the car and approached it gingerly.

Malissa understood that whatever was inside the bag didn’t get there on its own because the bag was tied.

Malissa carefully ripped apart the bag’s corner to have a look inside.

What was inside was even more surprising.

“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. I couldn’t believe it,” Malissa told The Dodo.

The dog was found in the middle of the road, having been put in a trash bag. Even if the small kid was only in there for a second, it would have been too long.

The puppy had a collar on, but no identification tags.

Since Malissa couldn’t bear to abandon the puppy, she drove him with her to class.

The puppy was eventually taken back to Malissa’s house by her son. After that, he and Malissa took the puppy to the vet to get checked out and immunized.

It’s unclear how the dog came to be in a bag on the side of the road.

Malissa called animal control after becoming concerned that the puppy would be abandoned or stolen.

The dog, however, was not reported as lost, and no one came forward to claim him.

Fortunately, Malissa and her family have adopted the puppy, so he will receive the care and attention he deserves. However, she is at a loss to fathom who would carry out such a heinous act.

“Who could do something like that to any animal? I don’t care who you are; everybody loves puppies. 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,” Malissa’s told The Dodo.

Video below: