When Lynn Boutwell noticed a strange swampy smell coming from her refrigerator, she figured it was just time for a deep clean.
“I cleaned my fridge [and] tossed out wilted lettuce and other things,” Boutwell told The Dodo. “But it still smelled swampy.”
Determined to track down the source, she pulled out every shelf and container — until she noticed something odd on the bottom shelf.
Two little shapes lay still beside the produce drawer, looking like limp bean sprouts. But when Boutwell leaned in closer, she realized they weren’t sprouts at all.
They were legs.
To her shock, she discovered a tiny frog curled up in the corner of her fridge — completely still, cold, and dried out.
At first, Boutwell assumed he hadn’t survived the chilly, dry air. But just as she was about to throw him away, she saw something that made her stop.
“I saw a faint heartbeat,” she said. “That tugged at my heartstrings.”
The frog wasn’t gone. He was hanging on.
Acting fast, Boutwell placed the little survivor in a small bowl with water and a damp paper towel — hoping warmth and moisture might bring him back.
Then, slowly but surely, something incredible happened.
“The frog started to move,” she said. “I was shocked the frog survived — even more shocked that [he] seemed to fully recover, all appendages working.”
Within hours, the once-shriveled frog was hopping again, alive and well as if nothing had happened.
Boutwell wasn’t sure exactly what kind of frog he was — or how he’d managed to stow away in her groceries — but before she could figure it out, he made his own decision.
He leapt out of the bowl … and disappeared.
Boutwell shared her unlikely rescue story online, where people couldn’t get enough of her act of compassion — and the frog who came back to life.
“What a strange and delightful story!” one commenter wrote. “Thanks for saving his life.”
What started as a quest to clean out a smelly fridge turned into something far sweeter — a reminder that even the smallest life can surprise you when given a little care.
