Cat accidentally shipped with Amazon return from Utah to facility near Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A cat was accidentally shipped with an Amazon return from Utah all the way to a facility near Riverside.

The animal’s owners said they had packed a box to return some shoes and took it to a drop-off location. They didn’t realize their cat, Galena, was hiding inside.

Friends and family helped the owners search their house, neighborhood and surrounding community for a week while they plastered missing posters around town and on social media.

After spending a week searching for Galena, the owners received a text that her microchip had been scanned the afternoon of April 17. It was detected 650 miles away in California.

Ultimately, Galena was trapped in the box with the Amazon returns for six days without food or water.

An Amazon employee named Brandy rescued the cat from the box when she found it in the Riverside-area warehouse. She took care of the cat before dropping Galena off at the vet the following day.

The owners then booked a flight to reunite with their miracle cat, who’s now doing okay.

They want to encourage all pet owners to microchip their pets and “triple check your Amazon boxes!”

CNN contributed to this report.