VPI Hambone Award

While most cats hate water, Sandy the Abysinnian would probably agree that wetter is better than being stuck in a dryer.

“Sandy’s not afraid of anything,” said Brandan Vanderpool of Irvine, Calif. “She’ll come right up to dogs and she won’t back down. She’s really curious and she wants to know about everything. So it was no surprise that she found the dryer inviting—it’s a dark place and she had to sneak in. She knew she wasn’t supposed to go in there and she knew we weren’t watching.”

Seconds after turning on the loaded dryer, Vanderpool and his wife heard a loud repetitive thumping noise and knew something was wrong. They immediately stopped the dryer and opened it to find a frightened Sandy.

“We went to urgent care, where they took X-rays and did a full check up,” said Vanderpool. “They only found a couple of bruises and one broken rib. We were lucky that we caught it right away. They kept her overnight to make sure that she didn’t have any bruising on the brain. That was the part that scared me, but it turned out she was fine and we were able to take her home the next day. She was just fine, as if nothing happened. The only difference is that she now stays away from the dryer.”