The Amazon returns employee wasn’t at work the day one of her colleagues at a warehouse in California — on the US west coast — found a small, furry stowaway in a box mailed six days earlier from Utah.
But Brandy Hunter got the call anyway.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Cat accidentally shipped across America in Amazon return reunited with owners.
Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus 
“Everyone knows I love cats,” she said.
“I was not on shift but went to the facility with cat food and a carrier to see if I could help.”
When she arrived on April 16, the small calico cat had emerged from the cardboard container.
But the feline was frightened and wouldn’t eat anything.
“She eventually warmed up to me and let me pet her,” Hunter said.
“I could tell she belonged to someone by the way she was behaving, so I took her home that night.”
Hunter planned to take the animal to a vet the next day for an exam — and to check for a microchip that might hold the secret to her identity.
Meanwhile, some 1000km away in Lehi, Utah, Carrie Stevens Clark had been eagerly searching for her lost cat, then missing for nearly a week.
Galena, a six-year-old indoor shorthair, tended to be quiet, and often froze in uncomfortable situations.
She also loved boxes.
And Galena’s family loved her.
They had prayed for her swift return, Clark said, even undertaking a one-day fast — a regular practice during challenging times within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
But still, no Galena.
Back in California, Hunter took her new foster pet to the vet.
An exam revealed she was not injured, had a regular temperature and was only mildly dehydrated.
The vet also made a key discovery: The cat was, in fact, microchipped.
Soon, another phone — in Lehi, Utah — was ringing.
Clark initially thought it was a prank.
The caller — in Jurupa Valley, California, west of Los Angeles — said they had found her lost cat.
Then the vet sent proof in the form of all the information from Galena’s microchip.
“I knew at that point she really had my cat,” Clark said.
But how?
“We literally had emotions of laughing hysterically to crying hysterically,” she said.
“They were so intense. It was just the strangest emotion feeling both of those at the same time.”
Galena, Clark soon learned, had been found in the Amazon return box.
That’s when she put it all together.
“The box is Galena’s absolute favourite place to play in, and she’s pretty chill and happy when she’s in a box,” Clark said.
On April 10, Clark, with her husband Matt, had been packing up work boots to ship.
“My husband had packed up the shoes, and he kept one pair and put the other five back in the box,” Clark said.
Then, Matt closed the flaps of the box before leaving the room to get tape and scissors.
“Galena must have snuck into the box without him seeing and without us knowing, and then he came back and taped the box back up,” Clark said.
“She loves to hide in boxes, so she was pretty happy in there.
“She didn’t make any noise.”
UPS then ferried away the box, Amazon representative Alisa Carroll said.
That’s when, by Clark’s estimation, a trio of “miracles” started kicking in.
The seams of one of the boxes wasn’t completely sealed, allowing Galena enough oxygen to breathe, Clark said.
The weather was also perfectly stable — not too hot or too cold — so Galena did not get overheated or freeze.
And then she arrived in Jurupa Valley, where Hunter, who rescues cats as a side hustle, picked up her phone.
She was “the only person at that warehouse who knew how to handle the situation” and recognised it was an accident and “wasn’t malicious by any means”, Clark said.
Soon, the Clarks were on a plane.
Galena’s grand greeting
“We were so nervous,” Clark said of the flight.
“I was so anxious to see her and just get to her.
“We didn’t know what kind of shape she would be in.”
Eight days after Galena was unwittingly packed up, and two days after the warehouse discovery, Clark and Matt stepped into the California vet’s surgery.
Clark began to coo, as Hunter recorded a video she later posted online.
“It’s Mummy,” Clark said, her eyes locked on Galena, crouched on a blue exam table.
“Hi … Hi, my baby,” she said, curling Galena into her chest and rocking back and forth.
“This is my baby.”
“This moment,” Hunter said of the reunion, “was absolutely amazing (full of happy tears!!).”
Then, Galena — after days of being too scared to eat and still rapt with exhaustion and stressed to the point of shedding — let Clark feed her by hand.
A purr-fect ending
For the whole 10-hour drive back to Utah, Clark stared at Galena as she slept.
And soon, Clark said, her furry companion was back to her usual self.
“We’re really pleased Brandy was able to help Galena reunite with her family,” Amazon’s Carroll said.
Galena will likely continue to be a massive box lover — hopefully without again taking off in one.
With their beloved cat back safe and sound, the Clarks want to emphasise the importance of owners being able to track their pets.
“The main reason we were able to be reunited with her was because of her microchip,” Clark said.
“So we encourage all pet owners to microchip their pets.”
