Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Hot Dog Was NOT on the Menu

Notice: The event described below was unintentional, and any humor I or my family found in the situation was because there was no injury or harm to anyone, animal or human.

I normally don't get much excitement, particularly of the humorous kind, but yesterday was an exception. I was grilling some steaks and burgers for the family. One of my dogs (Csaba) was hanging around the grill trying to get the drippings that made it through the coals and out the vent holes in the bottom of the kettle. I try to keep him away from the grill when it's in use, but he is pretty persistent, and I occasionally have to step away. My biggest concern has been that he might tip the grill over, as he's a pretty stocky dog for a Shiba Inu, and he's a bit of a klutz.

Anyway, I stepped in the house for a moment to grab something forgotten on the counter, leaving Csaba to his own devices for about 30 seconds. When I went back outside, he was on fire! Yes, on FIRE! From the base of his skull to the middle of his back, and down onto his left shoulder. As I didn't have water immediately at hand, and honestly wasn't thinking exceptionally clearly, I tried to catch him to put out the fire by smothering it. It turned out to be a good idea, as he ran and the breeze put the flames out.

A quick inspection showed that he was little worse for the experience, thank goodness. And I'm also thankful he didn't come in the house like that. Wow, that could have been bad.

Shiba Inu's have nice thick coats, and I suspect he never actually knew that there was a problem. He'd been under the grill enough in the past to know that his back would get warm and that it wasn't a problem, so I suspect he thought this was just the same thing. You can tell something happened to his fur as there are some funny looking patches over his left shoulder, but it would be tough to tell exactly what the problem was.

At the time, I was pretty freaked out, but I can see the humor now given that he was uninjured. And I have a new project to complete before my next session on the grill - a cage to keep the dog out from under it. Otherwise, next time we really might have a literal hot dog.

1 comment:

Helbnt said...

holy crap.

Yeah, I can see how you'd find it funny AFTER the fact, but jeezus, if I saw my dog on fire, my heart would skip a few beats...