BARBERTON, Ohio (WJW) — A local construction crew has a new coworker — and she has four paws and whiskers.
A tiny kitten was found trapped inside a piece of heavy machinery. Now, after being rescued, she’s become part of the RiverReach Construction family.
On July 14, RiverReach Construction Operating Supervisor Chase Guello was checking an excavator at a job site in Leavittsburg when he heard something he couldn’t ignore.
“I was hearing a faint noise that sounded like a beeping almost, or a screech,” he said.
Guello climbed onto the machine and looked down into the engine bay where he found a tiny kitten walking around inside the turret. He crawled underneath and removed the skid plate. Out popped a tiny orange kitten.
“Once we got her out, we took her into our office trailer for the rest of the day,” he said.
The crew named her Sue — short for Komatsu, the brand of excavator she was found inside. Chase said they searched for days for any sign of her mother, but never found another cat.
Sue went from being rescued from heavy machinery to becoming RiverReach Construction’s newest coworker.
Sue was nursed back to health for two weeks before being placed with the company’s shop mechanic, who plans to bring her to work once she’s old enough. Not bad for a kitten who started out hiding inside heavy machinery — and now has millions of online views.
“I think it’s such a feel-good story that, you know, traditionally, like blue collar — we’re rough around the edges, we don’t have feelings. But we still care for such a little kitten,” said Guello.
Even Komatsu got in on the story, sending Sue her own safety gear, including a tiny hard hat and vest. Soon, she’ll have an official place at the shop, with the shop mechanic as her new boss, of course.
“Once she’s of age, she’ll be traveling to and from work with him, and she’ll eventually become a shop cat under his supervision,” he said.
It’s a pretty big promotion for a kitten who started her life hiding inside a construction machine.
If you want to follow Sue’s journey, RiverReach Construction said it plans to continue sharing updates as she gets older and starts coming to work.
You can find a link to its social media here.