By: Zoe Chen

Galena the cat was shipped in an Amazon return box from Utah to an Amazon warehouse in California, where she was discovered.

Carrie Clark, the owner of Galena, couldn’t believe her ears when a veterinarian from Riverside, California, called her and informed her that her cat had been found hundreds of miles away in California.

Ms. Clark thinks that Galena jumped into the box when her husband left to get some tape to seal the box up for delivery.

They had then mailed the package on April 10 and didn’t notice the extra weight of their cat since the package was already over 30 pounds, and they didn’t think much about it. The same day, they noticed their cat, who was timid and liked to stay indoors, had vanished. Immediately, she started imagining all the bad situations her cat could have got in.

Ms. Clark said that she was in a lot of grief and was very heartbroken that her cat had disappeared. However, a week later, she received a call from the veterinarian saying that her cat had reappeared in California. Brandy Hunter, an Amazon employee, had brought a cat in to the vet, and the veterinarian had identified Galena with her microchip and called Ms. Clark.

Ms. Clark immediately booked a flight to California, and the next day, she finally reunited with Galena. “When I got to hold her again, she stopped shaking and knew that I was there for her,” Ms. Clark said. “It was such a miraculous moment.”

Amazingly, Galena was in good health for a cat who hadn’t had food or water in six days. After, she found out that two aspects had helped Galena survive in the box for that long. First, one seam of the box had come unglued, which allowed for oxygen flow inside the box. Second, the weather was mild, so it wasn’t too hot or freezing in the box.