Those cats are great! I remember the cat I had as a kid, Smokey enjoyed sitting on top of the G.E. dryer when my mom was doing laundry. The warm cover, and the vibration was purrfectly relaxing! He's never climed in the dryer though. I imagine because the GE was painted with dark speckeled paint inside, and it didn't have a light...but then again, cats usually like exploring dark, secluded places!
I've got that same brownish stain like that on my whirlpool, and wondered what it came from. It's electric too. It won't come off with any cleaner! I was worried that the unit was overheating. It must be just scorched paint. If find that odd, since I usually rarely run it on high, most of the time it stays on medium.