A woman in New York says her cat crept into the washing machine while she had her back turned.

Unaware that the cat was in the machine, the woman turned it on and started a load of laundry.

Luckily, when she heard a thud from inside the machine, she stopped the wash and rescued her cat.

She said, ‘I loaded the washer in the bathroom, then went to the kitchen but I heard a thud in the washer so I looked inside and he was in there scrambling around. I’m just thankful we can stop the washing machine because not everyone’s washing machine does that but when I stop mine the water drains out. He’d only been in there for about a minute but it could have been a lot worse.’

Luckily, the nine-month-old cat wasn’t harmed.