(UPI) A missing cat was reunited with her owner in Utah after taking a 500-mile journey to California in an Amazon return box.

Carrie Clark of Lehi said her 6-year-old cat, Galena, went missing from their Lehi home April 10, and she failed to turn up in the ensuing week, despite friends and neighbors joining in on the search.

Clark said she was shocked to be contacted April 17 by a veterinarian 500 miles away in Riverside, Calif. The vet had scanned the feline for a microchip and gotten Clark's contact information.

"I could not believe that it was true," Clark told The New York Times. I told her: I think this is a prank.

She said Galena's journey started to become more believable as the gaps in the tale were slowly filled in.

Clark's husband, Matt, had mailed out a 3-by-3-foot Amazon returns package earlier in the day April 10 containing five pairs of work boots.

Clark said the cat must have jumped inside when Matt left the room to get the packing tape.

"Unfortunately, she's not the kind of cat who makes noises, so she wasn't speaking up for herself," Clark told the Los Angeles Times.

Brandy Hunter, an employee at the Amazon warehouse in Riverside, said in a series of Facebook posts that a coworker found Galena inside the box.

"My coworker didn't know what to do, so naturally she called me, the crazy cat lady," Hunter wrote.

Hunter loaded Galena into a cat carrier and took her home for the night. She drove her to the veterinarian the next morning.

"We're really pleased Brandy was able to help Galena reunite with her family," Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll said.

Clark and her husband flew to California the next day to be reunited with their well-traveled pet.

"When I got to hold her again, she stopped shaking and knew that I was there for her," Clark said. It was such a miraculous moment.

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