The Monster in the Laundry Closet

Thimble had discovered a monster living in the laundry closet, and his human mama seemed completely unaware of it. The thing most resembled a snake, although it was nearly bigger around than he was. It had silver skin and was skeletal, with ribs sticking out all down its length.

This was most alarming and must be dealt with at once. It seemed to be trying to get into the big box that his human mama reached into while playing with her removable fur. He tried to check and see if it was coming through, but his mama sprayed him with water when he put his head inside, letting him know it was a forbidden place.

Well, if he couldn't make sure she was safe from that end, he was just going to have to muster up his courage and kill it. It was dreadfully scary, but he did it. He bit down into its neck right behind where it had its head stuck into the big white box, and he ripped a hole in its skin.

To his astonishment, it was hollow, with a kind of fluff coating the inside of the skin. Warm, moist breath exuded from the break ... he must have bitten through its windpipe, then, instead of the preferred cat's target of breaking the spine. But he didn't think anything could live with a hole that big in its skin, however strange the being, and so he retreated to let it die on its own.

***

I was hanging up wet laundry on the extendable rack afixed above the dryer, when I noticed a bit of dryer floof attached (mostly by friction) to one of the rods. The dryer was running at the moment, and the floof waved back and forth, the motion attracting my attention.

But the dryer filter thingy comes out of the door, which is in the front. How did a bit of dryer floof get back there? I leaned over the dryer to look down at the back of it, and saw a great gaping hole in my dryer vent that leads to the wall where it then vents to the outside. Or that's the idea, anyway. Now it was mostly venting out the hole.

I sighed. Thimble! Do you have to chew on everything?

To my own astonishment, I managed to be able to turn the dryer around in place inside the laundry closet. To my further astonishment, I was able to figure out how the vent was attached and un-attach it, trim the broken part off, and reattach it with only a trip to my parents' house for a wire cutters as a hitch in the plan to fix the dryer vent.

No harm done, essentially, but now I am keeping the laundry doors shut. This has led me to the conundrum of how to dry the inside of the washer, since I can't leave its front-loading door open and still close the laundry doors. If anyone has any clever ideas, I'd love to hear them!