CAT TRAPPED FOR A FULL 45-MINUTE CYCLE IN WASHING MACHINE
DAILYMAIL,25 JUNE,2019- A cat sneaked into a washing machine when its owner wasn’t looking and survived even after the door was closed and it was trapped for the whole 45-minute cycle.
Felix, from Minnesota, is on the mend after going blind and developing hypothermia - even after vets said it’s rare cats return from this sort of incident.
‘I must have turned my back for a few minutes folding clothes and he apparently went in there when I wasn’t looking,’ Stefani Carroll-kirchoff told Fox News.
She said she has lost sleep over the ‘horrific’ ordeal. ‘This will haunt me for the rest of my life,’ she said. ‘It’s the most traumatic experience.’
She said that she called her father and they rushed to a clinic where vets immediately put the cat on oxygen support and administered intravenous therapy.
Now, Felix is getting 24-hour oxygen from a chamber that costs around $1,000 every day, but his owner says she’s just happy he’s alive.
‘I will do anything I can for him to stay alive,’ Ms Carrollkirchoff said. ‘After what he’s been through, I feel like we owe it to him.’
The cat’s vision has now returned and he looks to have stabilized, with vets saying he should recover in a few weeks.
Felix had also been refusing food but he’s began eating again.
The ordeal has taken its toll financially as Felix wasn’t insured. A family friend set up a Gofundme page that has so far nearly $13,000 of the $15,000.
‘We feel so, so lucky. He is the miracle cat,’ Ms Carrollkirchoff’s daughter said.