This story of a Utah calico cat being transported to an Amazon returns facility in California with some men’s steel capped boots in a large cardboard box has some lucky bits such as the box being torn slightly which allowed the cat to breathe more easily which was important as the cat did nor drink or eat for six days.
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Another lucky break was the fact that a worker at the returns facility was a cat rescuer: Brandy Hunter. The Amazon worker who opened the package and discovered Galena called Hunter over who took Galena from her and then home from where she took her to her vet to have her microchip scanned. This allowed Hunter to contact the distraught owner: Carrie Clark and her husband, who’d adopted Galena as a kitten.
Galena’s mother was a pregnant feral cat rescued by Clark’s aunt. You can imagine what happened. Galena jumped into the Amazon returns box – clearly a large box – containing a few pairs of boots being returned by Clark’s husband and she wasn’t noticed when the box was sealed and shipped to Amazon. Amazing.
“We realized that that our sweet kitty must have jumped into that box without us knowing,” she said.
One clear factor in not spotting Galena was the fact that she was quiet. She’s back home now after the vet identified Clark as the owner.
Clark and her husband flew to California to collect Galena and hired a car for the return journey. A big commitment and the whole week was stressful for them but it ended brilliantly well.
Clark says that Galena is very important to her. She admits to being hysterical when her cat went missing. Although the amusing side of it occurred to her too.
“I went from hysterically laughing that she was stuck like that — we mailed our cat — you know … just the humor part of that, to hysterically crying all within like five seconds,” Clark said.
Image a cat being packed off to an Amazon returns facility in California? The lesson is to check boxes due to be sealed and sent and to ensure that your cat is microchipped. Very many cats have been successfully reunited thanks to the microchip.
Another danger zone is delivery vans outside the home of a cat owner. Their cat jumps in the van because of the cat’s inimitable enquisitiveness and they are transported miles away.
Boxes are a certain favourite for all domestic cats. Particular precautions have to be taken.
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