Continuing yesterday's post on Rocket's accidental "adventures", here's Accident #2.
[Just so you know in advance, no kittens were harmed in the making of this story.]
Last Monday night, I was multi-tasking the laundry downstairs with some blogging and email catch up in my office upstairs. It was about 11:30pm.
You know the routine: buzzer goes, run downstairs, fold prior load of laundry, pull next load from washer to dryer, put in next washer load, press go, run back upstairs again... repeat 5 times (kiddy laundry does go on and on and on...)
So, all this runnning up and down stairs gets the kittens all in a quiver. What is this very exciting activity and how can we get into mischief in it? And so they bound up and down the stairs, boing in and out of every laundry basket, and chase every sock thrown into the laundry hamper. Such an adventure!
And Rocket keeps jumping in the dryer. Why not? It's warm and cozy and seems like a very good idea to a 4 month old kitten.
Every time she'd do it, I'd have horrors of a tumbling kitten while I pulled her out and put her across the laundry room. But she'd soon be back in as I continued folding the laundry. So I pull her out for the last time after the last piece of clothing was done, then I put the clothes from the washer into the dryer, closed the door and switched the dryer on.
[Remember, no kittens were harmed in the making of this story - just in case you were getting anxious.]
So, as I was loading the washer with yet more laundry, I couldn't help notice the clunking in the dryer. What is that noise? Did I wash one of the girls' shoes by mistake? I finished loading the laundry, put in the detergent, started the laundry and that noise kept bonking and clunking.
[no kittens were hurt in this story - just remember that]
So I opened the door to see what was going on and my heart literally stopped - Rocket rocketed out from under the towels "me-elping" (no other word to describe it). I'll never forget it.
I was rooted to the spot. I felt ill. My life rushed before my eyes. I ran after her.
By the time I caught up with a very frightened kitten, her heart was beating out of her chest, her face was so afraid. I picked her up and her breathing slowed down and the purring began. I felt so awful; what had I done? How could I have been so careless? How could I not have realized immediately what had happened? (I still don't know how she got back in - must have been when I reached into the washer to pull out the last sock.)
Rocket tumbled around in the dryer for at least 10 seconds. FOR AT LEAST 10 SECONDS :(
Miraculously, Rocket is fine. She was lining up for food with Rosie when I put her down just a few minutes later as if nothing had happened. I do marvel at the elasticity of kittens (but do not test this at home - take my word for it).
Boy oh boy though, I'll be locking the kittens up early when I do laundry next time. An angel was watching over Rocket that day; there's no guarantees she'll be there next time around.
So Rocket, please don't give me any cause for Part 3 of this series. We love you in one piece with no broken bits. No more kitty adventures. We like a quiet life.
Accident Month at Embrace - literally. I think January is going to be Wellness Month...
