image source, Facebook/Carrie Clark
A US family has been reunited after their pet cat was mailed hundreds of miles away to California in an incorrectly returned package.
Galeana disappeared from her home in Utah earlier this month, sparking an extensive search for her beloved Moggy.
She jumped unnoticed into one of the family's packages and was rescued by an Amazon employee nearly a week later.
Although the cat had not been given food or water for several days, it was in good health.
“Galeana loves boxes and it's just part of her personality,” cat owner Carrie Clark told NBC's Utah affiliate KSL of how her family pet ended up so far from home. told the TV.
The cat was eventually taken to a veterinarian by Amazon staff and rescued from the large box. Inside were work shoes with steel toes.
There, the cat's microchip was scanned and Clark's contact details appeared. The vet then called and explained what happened.
Clark called it “the most amazing, insane news in the whole world.”
“I didn't believe her. [the vet] At first I thought it was a prank,” she added.
Clark and her husband then flew more than 1,000 miles to California to retrieve their pet.
“It was a wonderful reunion! As soon as I hugged Galina again, she stopped shaking and relaxed in my arms.”
Luckily for the cat, one of the seams in the box was open so it had air to breathe and the weather conditions meant it wouldn't freeze or overheat.
The BBC has contacted Amazon for comment.
Clark described the experience of not knowing what happened to Galeana as “excruciating” and told KSL-TV that she recommended microchipping pets and “triple-checking” Amazon boxes.
