How is this possible: Dog left in vehicle w/out food or water, in Vermont for 19 days, survives

[cali]

Vt. police: Poodle left inside vehicle for 19 days
11 hours ago

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Police say a poodle mistakenly left for nearly three weeks inside a van in a Vermont airport parking garage has survived.

The 12-year-old miniature poodle lost half its body weight and endured subzero temperatures. Police believe it was without food and water for 19 days.

Police say the dog is recovering and not available for adoption.

The male dog was discovered Jan. 6 after someone reported a foul odor coming from the vehicle.

The owner, 50-year-old Pascal Bellon of Frelighsburg, Quebec, says he didn't know the dog was in the vehicle. He was issued a ticket for cruelty to animals and has agreed to give up custody of the pet and pay veterinary bills.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUp4cB143mav8HJX-Syz_6lu8XeAD95NUKNG2

[Gman]

1. Lower body heat, slower metabolism?

[cali]

2. I don't know but

maybe there was some ice on the inside of the windows that dog licked off. I can understand how the dog could survive without food for that amount of time, but without water?

[cali]

3. kick

any vets or docs who can explain this?

[hankthecrank]

4. The Dog owner should be taken out behind barn and hit with large dull objects

[cali]

5. or locked into a vehicle without

water and food for a few days in freezing weather.

[Still Sensible]

6. When I was 11, we were moving from Iowa to Arizona

and the night before we left, we couldn't find our black cat Spooky. We searched everywhere in the neighborhood. The house was empty, everything was already on the NA Van Lines truck.

We had to leave the next day as Dad had to report to his new job in five days. Once in Arizona, we lived in a motel for almost three weeks until Dad and Mom found a house. In the meantime, all of our furniture was in a storage warehouse. We finally moved in our new home, 25 days after we lost Spooky.

The movers unloaded our furniture and as Dad walked into my sister's bedroom he heard a very faint little meow. It took him a couple minutes to figure out where it was coming from, but finally he opened my sister's dresser drawer and there was Spooky. She had lost most of her hair and, while she had weighed more than 14 pounds, she was down to about two pounds. We rushed her to the vet and she came home about two weeks later thin but healthy.

Apparently, Spooky had crawled in the drawer during all the hubbub of moving. She not only survived, she lived past 25 years old. Her longevity was probably in great part due to the fact that she lost all that weight and never became such a fat cat again. The vet said the only reason she survived the ordeal was because she started out so fat.

[closeupready]

7. OMG, what a heartwarming story. I'm glad Spooky came out of that okay.

You can only wonder what was going through her mind.

[GentryDixon]

8. That happened to me many years ago.

My cat Petey somehow came up missing the night before we pulled out of North Carolina for our new home. I put food out at the house and went over to my sister in law's house for the night, expecting he would show up by morning. It was our intention to get an early start the next morning, after I retrieved my cat.

Late that night as we were standing outside saying goodbye to friends I heard Petey meowing from inside the U-Haul trailer. We had to unpack all but the couch in the front of the van before we found him. He was behind the couch.

Needless to say, it was not an early start.