Utah cat with a fondness for cardboard takes surprise trip to California in an Amazon box

Galena, a 6-year-old home cat from Utah, likes hiding and taking part in with cardboard.

Earlier this month, the mixture of the 2 made for a hectic journey in an Amazon package deal, a feverish search, a California rescue and a tearful reunion.

Her household remains to be ready to “reintroduce cardboard to her once more,” proprietor Carrie Clark mentioned Tuesday, as a result of they don’t wish to stress her out.

Clark received Galena as a kitten after her aunt rescued a pregnant feral cat. The American quick hair with calico and Siamese coloring has been a continuing companion and supply of emotional assist.

“I’ve been by a bunch of well being issues and she or he and I’ve gone by all of that collectively. And he or she’s she simply has this further nice half about her character that’s very loving. And she will be able to inform if you don’t really feel effectively,” Clark mentioned. “And he or she’s simply actually, actually particular to me.”

So when Galena disappeared on April 10, Clark was beside herself.

They searched the neighborhood, put up flyers and posted notices on Fb misplaced pet pages in Lehi, Utah.

“Not understanding what had occurred to her was fairly excruciating,” Clark mentioned, “I cried my eyes out for seven days attempting to determine what had occurred.” Clark additionally ran by all of the worst-case eventualities, questioning if the cat might have gotten out of the home and been nabbed by a predator or run over by a automobile.

Clark mentioned she acquired a “textual content that modified my life” on April 17, saying that Galena’s microchip had been scanned, so Clark knew she had been discovered someplace. Quickly after, she received a name saying her cat was in California after being present in a field together with steel-toed boots that had been returned to an Amazon warehouse.

Clark’s husband had ordered a number of pairs of trainers, stored one and returned the remaining in a big field on April 10.

“We realized that that our candy kitty will need to have jumped into that field with out us understanding,” she mentioned.

Amazon workers knew simply who to name after they discovered the feline — co-worker Brandy Hunter, who rescues cats, Clark mentioned.

Hunter took the cat house and to the vet the subsequent day, the place the microchip was scanned.

Clark spoke with Hunter who “calmed me down and instructed me that my kitty was OK,” regardless of having spent six days in a cardboard field with out meals or water.

“I needed desperately to be along with her,” Clark mentioned. She and her husband flew to California the subsequent day, reunited with Galena on the veterinarian’s workplace and rented a automotive to drive house.

“We did what we wanted to do as a result of I simply adore her,” Clark mentioned.

It was an intensely emotional week.

“I went from hysterically laughing that she was caught like that — we mailed our cat — you realize … simply the humor a part of that, to hysterically crying all inside like 5 seconds,” Clark mentioned.

The household was fortunate to get Galena again, Clark mentioned, partially as a result of the climate was not harsh through the time the cat was lacking, the field was torn at a seam, permitting her to get extra air, and since Hunter who took her to a vet and had her scanned for a microchip.

Since phrase received out, Clark has been sharing her cat’s story, with recommendation to microchip your pets and to double-check your Amazon containers earlier than returning them.

Galena is a quiet cat, Clark mentioned.

“She didn’t meow,” Clark mentioned. “We might have liked for her to meow so we knew that she was,” within the field.