Miracles are part of our everyday life and, most of the time, you don’t even have to bother looking for them. Such a miracle occurred recently, when a 120-pound dog survived a night in the freezing cold, on the sidewalk. The dog was literally frozen when he was found by the Sheboygan County Humane Society. When he was found, the 12-year old Border Collie-mix was basically frozen to the sidewalk. Jiffy, as the dog is called, survived the night despite being frozen. Apparently, his survival is due to the layers of fat encompassing what the veterinaries call the “morbidly obese” dog. The layers of fact acted like a protective coat, insulating his organism from the cold, possible frost bites and a seemingly inevitable death.

The members of the Sheboygan County Humane Society struggled to remove the “pup-sickle” from the sidewalk it was almost fused to. After freeing the dog from the sidewalk, they gently and gradually unfroze him, using mildly warm water. The Sheboygan County Humane Society was alerted of the case by the dog owner’s worried neighbors, who were appalled by the sight of the frozen dog on the sidewalk. According to Carey Payne, who is the animal shelter’s manager, it was lucky that Jiffy had been fattened by his neglectful owner, as few dogs could have managed to survive a night with single-digit temperatures.

On the same morning as Jiffy’s miraculous rescue, his owner, a 59-year-old woman, was brought into custody under suspicion of animal neglect, according to Lt. Tim Eirich of the Sheboygan Police. She had told the police that she had tried to convince Jiffy to come inside the house, but couldn’t manage it, so instead she settled on “checking in on him” once every few hours.

So far, Jiffy has made an astounding recovery, although it is still uncertain whether his nighttime experience will have any long-term effects on the dog.