Pamela Escamilla, was busy packing the household things into a huge container and didn’t notice her three-year-old pet cat, Spice, get into the crate. But even as the cat was exploring the inner space, the packing was done and the container shut and sealed.

Soon the ‘puss in box’ was on a long voyage by ship from Hawaii to mainland California! In the mean time, the owners, after looking all over the place for their pet, finally gave up the search and boarded the flight to their new destination.

Eighteen days after it was packed, the container arrived in California. When it was opened the family was horrified to see fluffs of cat hair in the goods. Escamilla feared the worst as she climbed into the container to search.

“I saw Spice poke her head out from behind some bicycles, and I started to scream,” she said. She gently picked up the cat and went to the veterinarian, who said the feline’s prognosis was good. Spice’s kidneys had shrunk and her bowels were backed up, but the vet managed to get some liquids into the dehydrated animal. Spice had survived without food and water for an incredible 18 days!

How long can one survive without sustenance?

The general rule for humans is that you can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. But there are recorded cases of people holding out for much longer periods. Animals, in general, can survive longer.

A Taiwanese dog called ‘Lucky’, along with another named ‘Paopao’ (which means ‘treasure’), lived up to their names by surviving for 18 days trapped under the rubble of a building which collapsed in a massive earthquake in central Taiwan. But they didn’t starve entirely. The dogs had survived on fish stored in a refrigerator smashed open in the quake and water lapped from a nearby fish tank.

A 10-week-old kitten survived 17 days without food or water after stowing away in a lorry travelling from Israel, on a 2,000-mile trip.

Such amazing survival stories are reported periodically. But veterinarians hold that in all cases, including the one involving Spice, the animals must have survived by lapping the condensation from the walls. They say it is not possible for any mammal to live for so many days, with absolutely no water.

Still, under such adverse conditions, cats have the best chance for survival. That is because cats have evolved from desert animals (the progenitor of the house cat is believed to be the African wildcat) and as such, their kidneys have adapted incredibly well without water.

This, along with the cat's ability to survive a fall by managing to land on its feet, perhaps led the ancients to believe that cats have supernatural powers and can dodge death! Cats were revered in ancient Egypt and even after the cat worshipping religion died out, the belief that cats have paranormal powers, has stayed!