A pet owner was left “panicked” after spotting what she thought was her beloved cat trapped inside the washer.
Hairdresser Hayley Burke, from Manchester in the U.K., was doing a little laundry when she suddenly had the fright of her life.
“l put a wash in the washing machine ready to be turned on, as I was washing my hairdressing towels and gown that I’d been using on my client,” Burke told Newsweek. “Just as I clicked the drum shut, it looked as if my cat was in the washing machine.
At that moment, Burke felt the color drain from her face. “We’ve had the cat for five years now; her name is Jen,” she said. “She’s named after my late mother. I thought the cat was heading the same way.”
Burke was right to feel anxious. Though there are no official figures on the number of cat deaths caused by felines mistakenly entering washers and dryers, it is something that pet owners need to be vigilant of.
In 2010, a case study published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal detailed the accidental death of a 3-month-old kitten who became inadvertently trapped in a front-loading washing machine for an estimated five to 10 minutes on the hot cycle. Despite eventually being freed and receiving treatment, the cat died a day later as a result of aspiration pneumonia and head trauma.
Looking in at the contents of her washer, a similar scenario began to play out in Burke’s head. She was determined to prevent that. “I panicked and opened the drum again,” she said.
It was at this point that she discovered that “Jen” was, thankfully, not inside the washer. Instead, Burke had been fooled by a very convincing optical illusion. “It was just the buttons on the hairdressing gown pressed up against the glass of the washing machine door,” Burke said.
Eager to share the moment with fellow pet owners, and highlight how easy a mistake it was to make, Burke posted a video to her TikTok @hayleyburkenew, showing what happened and the sight that had deceived her in the first place.
The video went viral, amassing nearly 500,000 views and a glut of sympathetic responses. “I’ve watched the video back and can definitely see what u see,” one viewer said.
“I looked at that and thought my cat was in your washing machine, and he’s white,” another wrote.
A third added: “I literally will not put a wash on until I’ve physically located the cat.”
Elsewhere, one user commented: “I grabbed a load of towels out of the washer and put straight in the dryer and turned it on. It was making a thumping noise but thought the towels had clumped up. Thought I should separate them and when I opened the door my cat jumped out. He was obviously in there already having a nap. My poor boy. He was fine.”
Burke said she shared the clip, in part, to “make sure it wasn’t just me” that saw what looked like a cat. She now feels vindicated, while also relieved. “I was relieved when other people could also see it, and obviously I was glad it wasn’t actually her,” she added.
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