Amazing slug story

[domiles1]

Last night I washed a few old sheets that we use for our dog, they had been left in the garden a few days, in the rain. I shook them first to make sure all earwigs and other creatures were out, then they were washed on a 60 degree cycle. Before going to bed last night, I draped them over chairs to dry. This morning I was devastated to find a medium sized leopard slug loosely attached to one of the sheets, dead - it had been washed with the sheet. I love the patterns on these slugs and like to watch them in the garden and I desperately looked for signs of life but it was totally dead. Well, it would be, how could it have survived? I sadly wrapped it in a tissue and put it in the kitchen bin.
Then tonight, (about ten hours later) a similar slug was seen crawling across the kitchen floor near where the bin is kept! I carefully put it outside and, bemused, emptied the bin .... only to find the original tissue I'd wrapped it in, empty!
How is it possible for a slug to survive 90 minutes submerged, in soap suds, at 60 degrees??? Any biologists out there who can answer this?!!

[Kayleigh]

Lucky slug..
I cant answer your question..
I don;t get leopard slugs here I think they are really great glad it survived.

[Acutipuerilis]

That is amazing... some groups of little critters are known for being largely immortal (try tardigrades, for example), but I've never heard that of slugs.