PURRFECTLY CLEAN
Poppet was in Persil peril
Grabbing the pile of dirty clothes from my nine-year-old daughter Jessica’s room, I rushed downstairs and stuffed them into the washing machine.
I turned the dial to a 30 degree cycle and then walked off to carry on with the washing up.
About five minutes later, I heard a strange noise coming from the machine.
I looked around, and there was our nineweek-old kitten, Poppet, in the machine!
She was just spinning around in there. My heart froze. ‘Poppet!’ I screamed. I ran over and quickly switched off the machine, but the unlock function wasn’t working, so I had to put it on again to try and open it.
I still couldn’t get the door open, and Poppet was meowing on top of the laundry.
I saw her little face going around and around and I was hysterical.
Eventually I had to call the fire brigade for help.
While I was on the phone with them, I tugged on the washing machine door, but with no luck.
Thankfully, they arrived about 20 minutes later and were able to get the door open.
Little Poppet scampered out, sodden and terrified.
She was in there for about half an hour, and I can’t believe she wasn’t hurt.
I think she must have climbed in and got underneath Jessica’s favourite jumper, which was in the pile of dirty clothes in her room.
She sleeps on that jumper regularly and was probably attracted by the smell of it.
The firefighters said it was the first time they had ever been called for a cat stuck in a washing machine.
Luckily, Poppet was okay, but she was fluffier than she was the day before.
Sadly she’s since passed away, but she remains in my heart.
She was going round and round