PATCHES
by Laura Mills-Alcott

First, let me say that I really agonized over writing this. Why? Because I know there will be those who, after reading this, will want to make me the poster child for bad pet owners.

However, I finally decided if it saves one cat's life, it is better written than not.

So here it goes...

Yesterday, I was racing around the house, getting ready to be presented on the football field at Parent's Day, with my son, Jared (he just turned 12, and this is his first year of football).

I was getting ready to dry my hair, when I decided to wear a blouse I'd just washed. I ran into the laundry room, opened the dryer, rooted around in the washer until I found the blouse, and threw the blouse into the dryer - with a load of clothes I'd dried several hours earlier. I reasoned the blouse would dry faster when added to the already dry load.

The dryer thumped loud, but at that moment, my concern was drying my hair - not the tennis shoes I'd washed that were now in the dryer making all the noise. So I ignored it. For probably close to 8-10 minutes.

The blouse was thin material and I checked it after just around 8-10 minutes so it wouldn't be wrinkled. When I opened the dryer and pushed the clothes aside to try to find the blouse, there was my cat, Patches.

He was alive. I could see that right away, because he cried and was panting furiously.

I lifted Patches out of the dryer carefully and yelled to my daughter, Jordan, to get me the phone and water. I dialed 911 (who else do you call when your cat has spent 8-10 minutes in the dryer on HIGH heat?), and put water on Patches's tongue, trying to get him to drink.

911 told me to hang tight, they'd call Animal Welfare and the police. But how can you "hang tight" when you're cat is gasping for breath and his mouth is slacking and eyes glazing, just like you've seen happen to other cats before they die?

I had Jordan get me a towel, wet with cool water and I put it over Patches, and I stroked his little head while I called my Mom and babbled something (probably asked her what to do, but I don't remember).

Animal Welfare called, and though they were nice enough, the bottom line was, they couldn't do anything, because the cat was not a stray.

I called the animal emergency clinic and then raced the cat down there (after calling my mother back to tell her I had to take Patches to the vet, and could she please try to call the football field to get a message to my son, so he wouldn't think I'd forgotten him when I didn't show up).

It was at least 30 minutes after I got Patches out of the dryer before we made it to the vet (I really don't remember - time is a blur when you're panicked). His temp was still 105 degrees (after 30 minutes, a cool towel and air conditioning in the car).

Even in my panicked state, I had hope - the only blood was in the drool, and it just tinged the saliva pink, so I knew he wasn't bleeding from the lungs, and guessed (correctly) that he'd just bitten his tongue and that was the cause of the blood I saw. Also, while still at the house, after the cool towel, he'd jumped over the child safety gate in the laundry room and was moving.

On the other hand, his ears, nose and mouth were bright pink from heat and trauma, his cries were pitiful, he was in major pain, and he was in bad shape.

The vet administered fluids and steroids (to keep him from going into shock), and put alcohol on his pads to help get his fever down. He was hooked up to IV's and monitored (so much for the mortgage payment being on time - I couldn't have denied him anything he needed at that point).

I left the vet's knowing his ribs were not broken and he had a very good chance (apparently this emergency clinic has seen many cases of cats caught in the dryer cycle, and many of them in worse shape than Patches.)

We picked Patches up around 1:30am this morning. After only around 12 hours since the accident, he was looking much better. And his eyes were bright, although weary. I took him in the laundry room (where his food and litter box is), and he ate for a few minutes - apparently he'd regained his appetite.

Today I am watching Patches for any signs of trouble, primarily bleeding in the urine or stool. He's taking it easy, sleeping a little more than usual, and staying clear of the dogs and his two brothers, Birdie and Salem (all from the same litter). He's hurting - each movement is done carefully and slowly. He's bruised from head to toe - his ears, his nose, his body.

Now, the most difficult part of this story over...

My cats have always loved the dryer - all cats do. There's nothing better in the world to them (except maybe defenseless mice to torment) than a pile of warm clothes. But I've always seen them hanging around waiting for the dryer to open, or heard them jump in (they are all large cats and when they hit that open dryer door, you know it).

Even though the clothes in the dryer were not warm when Patches jumped in, he knows the open dryer means the likelihood of warmth. And even though the dryer was only opened for about 30 seconds while I searched for the blouse, that was enough time for him to jump in, unheard and unseen.

If you have a cat, or know anyone that does, please remember Patches's story. Make sure you look in the dryer before you close it, even if it was only open while you put the clothes from the washer into the dryer.

Don't think the "thump" will warn you that the cat might be trapped inside. In my case, I'd done a load of clothes that included a pair of tennis shoes. When I heard the "thump", I assumed it was the tennis shoes - but in reality, those tennis shoes were still in the washer, and were not big enough (they were my 8 year old daughter's) to make that loud of a noise. You will find a reason for any thumping, just like I did (you did a load of tennis shoes at some point, and that must be the cause for the sound, right?)

Patches was lucky. The load of clothes that was already in the dryer was sweaters and sweats - big, thick clothes, and lots of them. So when he was being thrown around, he was hitting thick material instead of the dryer drum. Because they were already dry, they weren't heavy, like wet clothes would have been, which probably saved him even more injury. These clothes weren't even the least bit warm because they'd been dried hours before, so it took some time, I guess, for the heat of the dryer to fully heat up the clothes, which may have protected him from the heat for at least a few minutes.

Patches is also a young cat (2 years) and big (he's big in size, plus he's been neutered and has put on a few pounds as a result). I would imagine that his size helped him, so that the clothes didn't suffocate him and he was rolled more than thrown.

But another minute in the dryer, and I have no doubt that I would have found him not only hurt, but dead.

Patches had a lot of things in his favor (I mean, if he had to get trapped in a running dryer, the fact that he was young and healthy, large, the clothes were thick and dry and cool were all things in his favor). In a weird sense, you could say conditions for being locked in the dryer were optimal.

Were any of these conditions different, he probably wouldn't have survived.

So again... please do a quick check before shutting the dryer (or washer) lid - just to make sure there are no cats (or, God forbid, kids) in there before you turn it on. And if the dryer thumps, even if you've done a load of tennis shoes, open it up right away and make sure, just to be on the safe side.

In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for Patches. He's doing well, all things considered, but we're not out of the woods yet.

UPDATE: This article was first written a little over a year ago. Patches is fine - fat and healthy.

I admit I babied him for some time after this happened, and as a result, he thinks it's fun to hang with me in my office and watch me write (there is no room for him on my desk, but he makes room for himself!)

Since this happened, I've talked to a rather large number of people who have known friends or relatives who've accidentally locked their pet in the dryer. Of all the stories I've heard, NONE of the pets survived. In every case, by the time the pet was found, it was dead.

We were very lucky.

If you know pet owners, especially cat owners, please have them read this article. Hearing about this may make people a little more watchful and in turn save a beloved pet from a horrible fate.

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