Chase Guello heard something strange coming from the bottom of the excavator.
It was a weak meow, almost fading away. The supervisor at River Reach Construction, an environmental restoration company in Barberton, Ohio, calculated that the kitten had been trapped in the machine’s heat for a day or two. On July 14, Guello and his team removed the excavator’s lower protective plate, and the tiny kitten fell out, weak but alive.
No one on the crew considered returning her to the street. They named her Komatsu, in honor of the excavator brand that nearly became her grave, though everyone already calls her Sue. Two weeks later, the kitten walked among helmets and tools like another employee, and the company decided that she would stay there forever, growing up alongside the men who pulled her out of the worst day of her life.