Stowaway cat accidentally mailed to California in returned package

A family in the US has been reunited with their pet cat after she was accidentally mailed hundreds of miles to California with a package return.

Galeana disappeared from her home in Utah earlier this month - prompting widespread searches for the beloved missing moggie.

She was rescued by an Amazon worker nearly a week after jumping into one of the family's packages undetected.

The cat was in good health despite having had no food or water for days.

"Galeana loves boxes, it's just part of her personality," Carrie Clark, the cat's owner, told NBC's Utah affiliate KSL TV when explaining how her family's pet had come to end up so far from home.

The cat was eventually rescued from the large box, which also contained pairs of steel-toed work boots, by an Amazon worker who took her to the vet.

There, the cat's microchip was scanned and Ms Clark's contact details appeared. The vet then called to explain what had happened.

Ms Clark described it as the "most amazing, insane news in the entire world".

"I didn't believe her [the vet] at first and thought it was a prank," she added.

Ms Clark and her husband then flew more than 1,000 miles to California to retrieve their pet.

"It was an amazing reunion! Galena instantly stopped shaking and relaxed in my arms when I got to hold her again."

Luckily for the cat, one of the box's seams had been open so there was air to breathe and the weather conditions meant that she had not frozen or overheated.

The BBC has approached Amazon for comment.

Ms Clark, who described the experience of not knowing what had happened to Galeana as "excruciating", told KSL TV that she encouraged everyone to microchip their pets and to "triple check" their Amazon boxes.