A tiny, blue-eyed kitten was saved thanks to a Walmart employee who happened to hear the thing meowing from the depths of a soft drink vending machine of all places.

Lindsey Russell, who works at the Morristown, Tennessee Walmart, tried all throughout her lunch hour to rescue the animal, after hearing its cries for help from inside the store.

Trying to get other employees to help, none of them managed to figure out A: how the kitten got into the machine, nor B: how to get it out again. Eventually they called fire and rescue who pried open some panels to allow the kitten to escape.

“We could hear it meowing as soon as we came up. We knew it was in there and kind of stressed out,” Morristown fireman Doug Allison told local news. “If we can help save a life, animal or human, we’ll do what we can do.”

After the potentially-lethal situation was averted, Russel, who along with her mom had rescued cats before, decided it was best to take the kitten, whom she described as “wiggly” and in good spirits, home before a necessary veterinary check.

She also said the incident immediately took care, more or less, of the question of what to call the grey striped kitty.

“This is Pepper, Pepsi, Pep, whatever you’d like to call her. She’s got a few nicknames now,” Russell said.

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