At an apartment where I lived many years ago, I was doing the laundry one afternoon (each unit had its own washer and dryer) and the washing machine started slowing down and speeding back up and slowing down again, and finally stopped. I checked the lights and they were off too. So I called the office and reported the problem.

After power was restored later that day, the maintenance guy came by to see if things were OK, and he explained that a squirrel had chewed into the power line.

It did freak me out a bit that in the washing machine's behavior I was indirectly seeing the death throes of the squirrel.