SUFFOLK, Va. >> A cat has used up at least one of its nine lives after surviving a monthlong trip in a moving box with no food or water.

Ashley Barth told WAVY-TV that her cat Mee Moowe disappeared in September as movers packed her family’s belongings for a move from Suffolk, Virginia, to Hawaii. The family spent three nights in their empty house, hoping the cat would return.

“It made me sick. It was heartbreaking,” Barth said. “My girls were devastated trying to tell me that I couldn’t leave without Mee Moowe.”

Thirty-six days later, the moving boxes arrived in Hawaii. Barth said she heard a faint “meow” as the boxes were unloaded. Mee Moowe was in one of the boxes.

“The guy goes, ‘what was that sound?’ and my heart just kind of sunk for a minute and I thought, ‘no, no way.’ And then we heard it again. And the guy said, ‘was that a cat?”‘ Barth said.

Barth said Mee Moowe had lost half her body weight, was anemic and could barely walk. Her eyes were crusted shut.

“She came right up to my daughters and right to me and wouldn’t let us leave her side,” Barth said.

WAVY said a veterinarian office in Hawaii that treated Mee Moowe reported the cat exhibited classic symptoms of starvation.

State veterinarian offices in Virginia and Hawaii told WAVY it’s unlikely a cat could survive 36 days without food or water, but it’s not impossible.

Barth said Mee Moowe’s survival is a miracle.

“I’m just as shocked as they are,” she said. “I have no idea how she did it.”

Barth said Mee Moowe was supposed to remain with a family member in Virginia and complete a vaccination process so she could make the move. The cat is now in quarantine at the vet’s office in Hawaii for three months.