Jesus jumped up Christ, JCW...at least leave the room.

On Saturday night, I sent out a question on Facebook.  I needed to know if anyone put a Pillow Pet in the washing machine.  Can you believe it?  First of all it was a Saturday night and I am asking about "the Wang family washing".  Secondly, my question gives out the perception that I dreadfully afraid of the consequences about washing....a stuffed animal. 

Most of the answers that I got were from mothers like myself.  Not knowing what to do and so cautious about the outcome that they left that smelly puff of a critter just fester.  A couple of mom's said that it was okay.  So I was willing to try it to--I felt like I was taking one for the team. 

Pandie is a Pillow Pet Panda that Laurel got when she was 4.  It was a gift from the "Move Fairy".  (The Move Fairy is a distant cousin of the Tooth Fairy.  MF leaves a small gift for the child that needs to acclimate to a new house.  Usually the parents that use MF are big suckers.)  Laurel has loved Pandie for 2.5 years but he stinks.  His fur is matted with dried drool.  No wonder Laurel wakes up in the middle of the night not being able to get back to sleep.  The label suggests surface cleaning only.  Surface cleaning?  That is like rinsing your hair rather than giving it a good sudsy scrub.  Or using a cloth napkin to wipe your front teeth of any grossness.  The person who wrote that instruction label clearly wasn't a parent.

So I held my breath and threw him in the wash.  My first mistake was throwing him in butt first because as soon as the cycle started spinning, his face was pressed up on the glass.  My second mistake was standing there watching, giving him encouragement that everything was okay.  Jesus jumped up Christ, JCW...at least leave the room.

Pandie looked okay when I took him out of the wash.  I threw him in the dryer without talking to him.  I avoided eye contact too. 

When I took him out of the dryer, he looked like the Pet that I unwrapped for Laurel back in 2010.  He looked great but more importantly he smelled clean.  I feel like I dodged a bullet...I didn't climb a mountain, I didn't speed down the Pike, but washed a stuffed animal and all is right with the world.

JCW's Instruction of Washing a Pillow Pet...(It's a Pillow, It's a Pet...It's a Pain in the Ass.)
Unfold it like a pillow.
Wash alone, delicate cycle, warm/cold water setting.
Normal detergent (I use Wisk--Economy size from Costco.)
Dry for 40 minutes on low setting.  If it is slightly damp, let it air dry.  Once dry, take a deep sniff of the freshness.  I am sure this has been a long time coming.
(My washing machine is a front load.  I can't assume the same results with an agitating machine.)