(CNN) Stefani Carroll-Kirchoff always checks the washer and dryer to make sure none of her three cats have climbed inside. Well, almost always.

Last week, after fetching more clothes for a load of laundry, she shut the door without thinking. She set the machine to express wash -- warm water, cold rinse -- and walked away.

Thirty-five minutes later, when the cycle was done, she noticed the clothes were still dripping wet. She was just about to shut the door again when she saw a single white paw sticking out from the wet laundry.

Somehow, her 1-year-old cat Felix had found his way into the machine. She quickly took him out and called her father, who raced them to the Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota.

Although Felix had lost his vision and had pneumonia from the amount of water in his lungs, he survived and is doing better now -- he can see and has started eating. He's still on oxygen.

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