ACROSS AMERICA — Cats are notoriously attracted to boxes. They crawl in, believing the containers are their cardboard huts. Allowing that is usually a harmless indulgence, but not for a hapless cat named Galena, whose family in Utah accidentally shipped her 650 miles away in an Amazon box filled with boots.

Apparently, no one along the delivery route heard meowing and growling or felt enough movement in the box to be curious about its contents. It was six days before Amazon workers in Jurapa Valley, California, discovered the accidental stowaway.

Initially, she eluded the startled workers.

They summoned coworker Brandy Hunter, who it turns out to something of a cat whisperer. The cat was visibly distressed and “walked over to the pet carrier” and hopped right in.

At that point, Hunter didn’t know how that cat had ended up in the Amazon return box. “We’ve gotten some crazy things,” she told Patch, “but never anything like this.”

Meanwhile, Carrie Stevens Clark had searched every inch of her Lehi, Utah, house looking for Galena before concluding she “literally just vanished,” never suspecting the abyss her cat had crawled into was an Amazon return box.

Galena had been microchipped and she’s back in Utah now, a little skinnier, but her blood work came back normal. While her family is “in awe” of her tale of survival, the ordeal is a reminder to “triple-check” return boxes before sealing and shipping them, Stevens Clark said.

Utah Family Wonders, Where’s Our Cat? | Amazon Workers Winder, Who Shipped This Cat?

Bright Blue Blobs Cause A Stink

Bright blue jelly-like blobs washing up on Southern California beaches have been a source of mystery and curiosity in recent weeks.

These wayfaring, disc-shaped, surface-dwelling creatures rely on the wind to travel and are known more by their common name, “by-the-wind sailors,” than their scientific name, Velella velella.

And here’s the thing: They are actually many small beings that combine to form a bigger colony that floats along until they beach themselves.

“They are all over the place. They are thick on the beach right now. They are drying up and they kind of smell,” said one lifeguard with a vantage point to know.

• Read more: Mysterious Blue Blobs Wash Up On California Beaches

About Washington’s Cherry Tree. . .

As the story goes — and it is an unproven but nevertheless enduring story — George Washington chopped down a cherry tree as a 6-year-old and confessed his bad behavior to his father. But did he pick the fruit and preserve it first?

Not that anyone knows of, but the discovery of 250-year-old cherries at his Mount Vernon home certainly embellishes the story. Two bottles containing cherries buried at the estate were found in a recent archaeological dig in the cellar. They may have been buried in the 1700s, judging by the bottles, which were manufactured in Europe and were popular at the time.

“This incredible discovery at Mount Vernon is a significant archaeological find,” Mount Vernon Principal Archaeologist Jason Boroughs said. “Not only did we recover intact, sealed bottles, but they contained organic material that can provide us with valuable insight and perspective into 18th-century lives at Mount Vernon.”

He added, “These bottles have the potential to enrich the historic narrative, and we’re excited to have the contents analyzed so we can share this discovery with fellow researchers and the visiting public.”

• Read more: 250-Year-Old Cherries Found At George Washington’s Estate

Caught In The Claw

A child had to be rescued from a teddy bear claw machine at a Hartford, Connecticut, laundromat.

The youngster was trying to grab a stuffed toy when he got stuck. He walked away without a scratch and was given a special treat, according to Hartford fire officials.

• Read more: Kid Rescued After Getting Stuck In Claw Machine

Looking The Part To Rescue Lost Bird

It wasn’t a theatrical performance that had Hillary Thompson donning a whooping crane costume recently in Wilmette, Illinois. To accomplish her aim, which was to rescue an endangered whopping crane that had somehow ended up far away from home, she had to look like a whopping crane.

Thompson, who is with the International Crane Foundation, also used a puppet shaped like the head of a whopping crane to offer grapes to the bird.

Animal, as the female whooping crane is called, is a rare bird. There are only about 700 living in North America, and nearly a quarter of those were raised in captivity and released to the wild. Animal, who was raised by International Crane Foundation, splits her time between Wisconsin and her winter home in Indiana, and is part of a migratory population of about 75 birds.

A Good-Hearted Thief

A Florida man who kept his late mother’s remains near him lost track of her when the ashes were stolen along with his custom Dodge Challenger Hellcat

The suspected thief had “a good heart,” though, according to the victim, who found his mother’s ashes in the mailbox.

It’s unclear if he got the Hellcat back, though.

Eat A Cicada Without Eating A Cicada

Oh, relax. The 17-year periodical cicadas emerging in Illinois aren’t an ingredient in the cicada cakes a suburban Chicago bakery turned out to celebrate the natural phenomenon — though to be clear, if you want to eat cicadas, they’re edible and reportedly quite tasty.

The fact Bent Fork Bakery in Highwood sees a market for ganache-covered cakes decorated with red eyes and chocolate wings is evidence of the noisy hullabaloo surrounding the noisy cicada emergence.

• Read more: Eat A Cicada Without Eating A Cicada

Gator ‘Rasslin’ At School

So, an alligator in Florida went to school the other day. The swamp creature didn’t make it inside Seven Oaks Elementary School in Wesley Chapel, but it was close enough to cause a scare.

What happened when Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission authorities tried to control it is more appropriately defined as “rassslin’,” a southern colloquial term, than wrestling.

A trapper gave his best effort, but the gator seemed to be winning the match, according to a video of the encounter that shows the school grounds trespasser flinging the trapper around like a toy, causing the man to fall on his back.

Authorities did eventually capture the alligator. The trapper didn’t appear to be injured.