It's a tribute to the amazing senses of those wonderful little creatures that he was able to unerringly latch onto my film in the dark. Once I completed processing the negatives, that was when I discovered that there was a substantial amount of cat fur glued onto the images. Before you start Make sure there are no fun-loving jungle predators in the darkroom. Make sure the reel is drier than you can get it. I don't recommend putting them in a microwave oven, but film driers or anyplace where there's a constant high flow of warm dust and cat fur-free air is good.
Some photographers use a blow-drier.
I prefer not to, since Patterson reels often get harmless water in the center of the reel, which a jet of air can force out at a bad time. If your reel looks perfectly dry it may not be. As a result of this, I have adopted a policy that I only use a given reel once during a given day. Since then I've had no problems. Your mileage may vary, but the basic point here is that as soon as you get a minute quantity of water on the reel's rails and the emulsion hits it, it turns to glue and life becomes un-fun.