Galena, a 6-year-old cat, was found in an Amazon warehouse a week after she climbed into a 3-by-3-foot cardboard box at her owner’s home.
When Carrie Clark got a phone call on April 17 from a veterinarian in California informing her that her pet, which had vanished from her Utah home a week earlier, had been found some 500 miles (804km) away, her first reaction was disbelief.“I could not believe that it was true,” Clark said in an interview on Sunday night. “I told her: I think this is a prank.”
It wasn’t. Galena, her 6-year-old American shorthair, had sneaked inside a 3-by-3-foot cardboard Amazon returns package alongside five pairs of steel-toed boots. Then the cat was transported two states away to one of the company’s warehouses, where it was discovered by Amazon employees.
Galena survived the unexpected journey without any food or water, Clark said. Despite her ordeal, Galena was in relatively good health with no issues apart from mild dehydration, Clark said. Two factors had helped: One seam on the box had come unglued, allowing oxygen to circulate, and mild weather kept Galena from overheating or freezing. Clark said she thought that Galena got into the box while her husband was packing it, by jumping inside when he left to fetch some tape to seal it up. “She doesn’t meow a lot and she loves boxes, so for her, she was really happy in that moment. Although I’m sure that wasn’t the case later on.”
Since the box already weighed over 30 pounds, Clark and her husband did not notice the added weight of a stowaway when they mailed it on April 10, she said. But they did quickly notice that their shy, indoor cat was missing that same day. After days of searching the house and the neighbourhood turned up nothing, worst-case scenarios started running through her mind, Clark said. Had Galena darted outside? Had she been snatched up by a predator?
“We had absolutely no idea what had happened,” Clark said. Then she received the call from a veterinarian in Riverside, Calif. An Amazon employee, Brandy Hunter, had brought Galena in, and the veterinarian identified her through her microchip and contacted Clark. Hunter wrote on Facebook. “We have gotten some pretty crazy things in my time but never anything like this!” Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When Clark got the call, she and her husband quickly booked a flight to California to be reunited with Galena. “It was such a miraculous moment.”
When Carrie Clark got a phone call on April 17 from a veterinarian in California informing her that her pet, which had vanished from her Utah home a week earlier, had been found some 500 miles (804km) away, her first reaction was disbelief.“I could not believe that it was true,” Clark said in an interview on Sunday night. “I told her: I think this is a prank.”
It wasn’t. Galena, her 6-year-old American shorthair, had sneaked inside a 3-by-3-foot cardboard Amazon returns package alongside five pairs of steel-toed boots. Then the cat was transported two states away to one of the company’s warehouses, where it was discovered by Amazon employees.
Galena survived the unexpected journey without any food or water, Clark said. Despite her ordeal, Galena was in relatively good health with no issues apart from mild dehydration, Clark said. Two factors had helped: One seam on the box had come unglued, allowing oxygen to circulate, and mild weather kept Galena from overheating or freezing. Clark said she thought that Galena got into the box while her husband was packing it, by jumping inside when he left to fetch some tape to seal it up. “She doesn’t meow a lot and she loves boxes, so for her, she was really happy in that moment. Although I’m sure that wasn’t the case later on.”
Since the box already weighed over 30 pounds, Clark and her husband did not notice the added weight of a stowaway when they mailed it on April 10, she said. But they did quickly notice that their shy, indoor cat was missing that same day. After days of searching the house and the neighbourhood turned up nothing, worst-case scenarios started running through her mind, Clark said. Had Galena darted outside? Had she been snatched up by a predator?
“We had absolutely no idea what had happened,” Clark said. Then she received the call from a veterinarian in Riverside, Calif. An Amazon employee, Brandy Hunter, had brought Galena in, and the veterinarian identified her through her microchip and contacted Clark. Hunter wrote on Facebook. “We have gotten some pretty crazy things in my time but never anything like this!” Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When Clark got the call, she and her husband quickly booked a flight to California to be reunited with Galena. “It was such a miraculous moment.”
