KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 12-week-old puppy found locked in an abandoned car survived by eating scraps of McDonald's food for almost a full month, according to rescuers. 
 
 "It's devastating to hear, and then it's inspiring to hear at the same time," Tori Fugate with KC Pet Project said. "Hearing how this little girl has lived in this car for this long in those conditions is just amazing." 
 
 Animal control officers are trying to track down the puppy's owners by tracing the car's license plate number. They say the owners will face criminal charges if found. 
 
 The puppy, who rescuers named Kia, was discovered by an employee at the Kansas City tow lot on Monday, Fugate said. The car had been in the lot since April 8. 
 
 "She's really scared. She has been since she got here," Fugate said. "She's shaking, poor thing." 
 
 While Kia was dehydrated and emaciated, she's expected to survive. 
 
 Anyone who wants to help Kia can call the KC Pet Project at 816-513-9821. 

 For what officials believe is nearly one-third of her life, Kia the puppy was trapped inside a Chevy Suburban as it sat in a city tow lot. 
 
 People can also find out how to become a foster owner for pets at Kansas City Pet Projects’ web site . 
 
 Kansas City Pet Project will accept donations to cover food for dogs like Kia at its web site . 
 
 The car had been impounded nearly a month ago, and no one knew she was there  until Monday. 
 
 A tow company employee was marking vehicles for auction when the dog jumped up on the dashboard, according to Danny Rotert, spokesman for Kansas City municipal government. Tow lot employees called police, who came out and unlocked the vehicle. 
 
 No one knows how Kia survived, but it is believed that she picked through leftover McDonalds trash, but tow lot employees didnt see any sign of water. 
 
 City officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the case. 
 
 Everyone at the tow lot is upset, and no one intended to neglect a dog, Rotert said. 
 
 Its a pretty miraculous story, Rotert said, adding that everyone is relieved the dog will go to a foster home. 
 
 Veterinarian Billie Deam, who owns and operates the Animal Clinic of Boardwalk Square in Kansas City, North, said that while its possible, its unlikely for a puppy to survive such an ordeal. 
 
 Without an appreciable amount of water, its pretty miraculous for a puppy to survive three weeks in a car, she said. 
 
 The key would be what was in the debris inside the car. There are pups abandoned outside that are able to live on minimal amounts of food and little water, she said. 
 
 Physiologically its possible, depending on what she was eating to survive on, said Deam. But its really stretching the outer limits of whats possible. 
 
 What is known is that the 1990 Chevy Suburban was towed because it was abandoned April 8 on an eastbound ramp to I-70 from Van Brunt Boulevard and was blocking traffic, Rotert said. Police got the call at 10:08 p.m. and it was towed to the city tow lot at 10:45 p.m. Neither police nor the tow truck driver saw a dog, nor did tow lot employees. 
 
 The doors on the car were locked. Typically, when a car arrives at the tow lot with locked doors, employees take pictures of the outside of the vehicle and keep the doors locked. Rotert said they do not try to break into locked cars. 
 
 Tow lot employees inventory the contents and take pictures only if a car arrives unlocked. 
 
 Rotert suggested the dog might have been scared and hiding out of sight when the car was brought in. 
 
 The owner, whom Rotert declined to name, showed up May 1 to inspect the car, but did not have keys to get into it. The owner never mentioned a dog, and it is not known if the owner was driving the vehicle when it was abandoned. The owner still owes $1,100 to retrieve the vehicle. 
 
 Once Kia was found Monday, she was brought to the citys animal shelter, which is operated by Kansas City Pet Project. 
 
 She came in about 2:30 or 3 p.m., said Tori Fugate, manager of marketing and development for Kansas City Pet Project. She was really skinny. 
 
 Although the dog is 12 weeks old, it appeared to be only 8 weeks old. 
 
 The terrier-schnauzer mix was emaciated and dehydrated from being trapped in the vehicle. 
 
 They named her Kia because they couldnt think of any names based on the vehicle she was in that were fitting. 
 
 Kia ate a little when she arrived at the shelter and she is expected to survive. 
 
 Fugate said a foster home will be sought so that Kia can be trained. Because of that, she wont be available for adoption for up to two weeks. 
 
 Four weeks of her life she was trapped in the car, so she has no formal training, Fugate said. 
 
 In addition to the training, she will get her vaccinations, and will be de-wormed and spayed.
– A 12-week-old puppy somehow managed to survive for four of those weeks in an impounded car in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reports. Little Kia is believed to have subsisted on McDonald's trash and cigars that were left in the Buick, which was impounded April 8 for being illegally parked, but employees at the tow lot saw no sign of any water in the car. She arrived at the city's animal shelter after finally being found yesterday, emaciated and dehydrated and looking more like an 8-week-old puppy, and was finally able to eat a little dog food. The terrier-schnauzer mix is expected to survive—KSHB notes that the cooler weather likely had a hand in that—and will be placed in a foster home so she can be trained and get veterinary care before going up for adoption in two weeks. Employees at the tow lot are upset, and say they're not sure how Kia went undetected for so long; it's possible she was hiding, and employees typically don't unlock doors when a car arrives locked, as this one did. No one ever came to claim the car or the dog. City officials are investigating.