Neal Augenstein and his family recently had a scare when their family cat named Mike didn't come home for dinner. For two days, Neal searched the neighborhood, walking around with a bag of treats and calling Mike’s name. He even checked near the sewers, but there was no sign of him.

Then Neal remembered something that made his stomach sink. His family had recently gotten rid of three couches — and Neal had a sinking feeling that Mike was in one of the couches when it was taken away to the landfill.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened, which put everyone involved on high alert. Neal feared for the worst, imagining that Mike was somewhere inside a dangerous waste facility, surrounded by machinery and trash.

Luckily, heavy equipment operator Mauricio Martinez spotted Mike trapped on a 15-foot ledge inside a trash pit. Landfill workers positioned a loader bucket under the ledge to scoop him up. And after a brief escape into a storage room, animal control safely rescued Mike and brought him safely home to his family.

"There were so many hands that touched Mike," said Neal. "And there were so many places where things could have gone very badly, but things turned out perfectly, and I'm delighted to have him home. Just an amazingly happy ending, and I'm so thankful to everyone who played a part in it,” he said.