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'Tough' Toddler Survives 2 Days in Mo. Woods
He was 4 miles from home—starved, naked, and grinning
By Caroline Miller
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Posted May 7, 09 8:11 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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By the time his bare bottom was spotted in the woods yesterday, rescue crews were doubtful they would find Joshua Childers alive. But the 3-year-old sprang up and grinned when a volunteer called out to him. He had wandered into the Missouri woods Monday morning and survived 50 hours barely clothed and without food or water, the AP reports.
"He's a tough little bugger," says his dad. "I don't know grown men that could do it." Childers told his grandmother that he was on his way to visit her. She lives 5 miles from his house, and he was found a half-mile away—dehydrated and covered in ticks, but otherwise fine—in a forest home to bears, mountain lions, and snakes.