What's an opossum doing in my washing machine?

I had a puzzling situation on Memorial Day morning. I was awakened by a loud call from my wife, who was going to do a load of laundry. Our washing machine and dryer are in our garage.

Her voice was filled with either shock or fright. I ran downstairs not knowing what I was going to find, and there she was, pointing to the washer saying there was a dead rat or gopher or mole or something that looked like that in the machine.

I asked her if it was a trick -- I thought something was going to jump out and chew on my face. I slowly opened the lid and laying inside was a young opossum doing his best playing-dead act.

He looked to be 8 to 9 inches long from pointy nose to rump. His -- or her -- tail was about 6 inches long. I later did research and my guess was he was 4 to 5 months old.

My two big questions are: How did he get into our garage, which we never leave open except to drive our vehicle in or out, and how did he climb into our washer, which also always is closed, and end up inside?

What was this little guy looking for? Water? A good hiding place?

My daughter came in through the garage the previous night and she said she hadn't seen anything. We live near a marsh area in Antioch and there's an open field across the street. We see raccoons, skunks and the occasional opossum running around at night.

We kept him in our laundry basket with the lid taped shut until night, then I let him out in the middle of the field across the street. I hope he makes it. I don't know if he is old enough to be on his own or if he got separated and lost. Any information you can provide is cheerfully appreciated.

I have to say this is the funniest and oddest question that I've come across in my 10 or so months of writing this column. I checked with my sources to see if they had ever heard of such a thing, and none had, so we are left with theories.

My original thought was maybe he was small enough to have crawled in through the washer drain, but that seems very unlikely. Opossums just don't hang out in such places. But they are excellent climbers and can squeeze in through tight quarters. They aren't as adept at it as rats, but this guy may have been able to get through a wide space under a door, or got in while the garage door was open.

The next hurdle would be in getting into the washer. One obvious thought is that he was hiding in the laundry and your wife unknowingly picked him up with the clothes.

Most likely, I believe, he went to the back of the washer where there are cords and hoses, and climbed up there. Then, if your washer is like most, there is a slight recess where you open the lid. The opossum could have nosed his way in there and dropped into the washer, the lid slamming behind him.

He may have gone looking for food or water, but probably he was just looking for a dark place to hang out -- not a wise move on his part, but he didn't know that.
I did an Internet search and found a handful of news accounts about people finding opossums in their washing machines with no clue as to how they got there, so opossums may have a washer fixation.

Your little guy probably did just fine after his escape from the rinse and spin cycles. Judging by his size, he was old enough to be on his own. Let's just hope he learned his lesson, and I'll be checking my machine in the future. More information about the program is available on the web site at www.aulaundry.com.