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Felines accidently sent from South Carolina to Vermont in returned package

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updated 2:30 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2005

VEGENNES, Vt. - A worker in the returns department at Country Home Products got a surprise when he opened a brush trimmer sent back from South Carolina.

Inside the box was the trimmer — and five kittens.

The three-week-old kittens survived the two-day trip to Vermont and are doing fine.

Story continues below ↓

The South Carolina customer who returned the trimmer had stored it in a barn, and apparently sealed the box without looking inside.

The kittens were taken to a Humane Society shelter in Middlebury, where they met Hazel, a black cat whose kittens had just been weaned. Hazel is a now a surrogate mother to the kittens.

The shelter says the kittens should be available for adoption in about three weeks.