The big box that Juliana Lewis' patio chair arrived in was the perfect jungle gym for her cats, all eight of them. When Lewis had to send the chair back to the manufacturer, she shooed the cats out and quickly taped it up before they could wiggle back in.

Lewis put the box outside her home in Ledyard, Conn., for the FedEx driver and went about her day. Little did she know that Pip, her year-old black and white cat, was trapped inside and headed for Missouri.

Lewis, 49, a full-time accounting student who also works two jobs, didn't realize Pip was missing from her array of cats until a day and a half later. She made a frantic call to FedEx at 11:30 p.m. on April 29.

"I said 'You are going to think this is weird, but I think I accidentally sealed my cat in a box,'" Lewis said.

FedEx computers showed the package was in Franklin, Mass., but Pip and the chair left on a truck bound for Indianapolis before anyone could liberate the cat.

Lewis didn't sleep all night. She had rescued Pip and his sister from under a trailer home when they were just three weeks old. They were sickly and infested with fleas and ear mites. She nursed them to health, and Pip grew into a timid, goofy cat who made sounds when he played, like a little boy who growls, "Vroom, vroom" while playing with toy cars.

"I knew he would be OK in the box without food and water as long as it wasn't 120 degrees," she said.

She checked the weather along the truck's route and made teary calls to FedEx.

Her case was assigned to Sarfraz Khan, a customer-service representative in the trace department and a dog owner who would soon develop a love of cats, or at least Pip.

Khan met the truck at the FedEx plant in Indianapolis when it arrived at 5 p.m. on April 30. He asked for help to unload it, but nobody was available, so he did it himself.

More than a thousand packages fit in a FedEx truck. Khan searched for the 38-by-29-by-29-inch box addressed to Columbia, Mo., and found it after unloading half the truck.

"I could smell the odor and I could hear him jumping," Khan said.

He opened the box in an office and found Pip sitting on the chair.

"His heart was beating real fast. I touched him and you could tell he was scared," he said.

Khan called Lewis and told her that Pip was safe. Lewis was ecstatic. With no other place for Pip to go, Khan took him home.

He bought cat food, a water bottle, a litter box and a toy for Pip. On his day off, he took Pip to a veterinarian to get a health certificate so that the cat could fly home on a commercial plane. When the airline wouldn't accept Lewis' credit card over the phone, Khan paid for it. In all, Pip spent four days with Khan's family.

Khan put Pip on a plane bound for T.F. Green Airport on Tuesday, and a few hours later, Pip was back home, cuddling up with the other cats and rolling around on the floor.

Lewis called Khan and thanked him.

"It was the most amazing feeling you can imagine," Khan said. "It was like a happy family reunion. I was thrilled and had tears in my eyes."

Lewis said Khan and FedEx were incredible throughout the ordeal.

The adventure seems to have changed Pip. Now he now sleeps with Lewis, and he doesn't let her out of his sight.