A Construction Crew Heard Tiny Meows From Their Excavator. Now The Cat Is A Supervisor.
Supervisor Chase Guello of River Reach Construction in Barberton, Ohio, was working near a Komatsu excavator when he heard something that did not belong on a construction site: tiny meows. He checked the skid plate. Out tumbled a small, cold kitten, alone, with no mother anywhere in sight. The crew did what any reasonable group of hardworking humans would do in that situation. They warmed her up, brought her into the office trailer, and gave her a name. They called her Sue. Short for Komatsu. She is now the official shop cat at River Reach Construction, and according to a subsequent update from the company, she has already been promoted. She is now the supervisor.
The story of Sue is sweet on its own, but it is also part of something larger. Construction sites have a long and thoroughly documented history of adopting stray cats — there is even a name for them in urban Japan, where they are called "genba neko" or "site cats," photographed obsessively by workers who post them to social media. In the US, construction workers routinely rescue kittens found in excavated earth, inside wall cavities, and in the engine bays of heavy equipment. The pattern is consistent: crew hears meowing, crew investigates, crew adopts cat, cat becomes mascot, cat eventually outranks everyone. The reasons are probably simple. Construction work is long, physically demanding, and often performed in uncomfortable conditions. A kitten in the office trailer is one of the most effective morale tools in existence, and it costs almost nothing. Sue fell out of an excavator and landed a full-time job with excellent career growth prospects. It is the most construction thing that has ever happened.
