We Be Burnin’ Part II

You may recall a previous post I wrote entitled “We Be Burnin”, and you may also remember that it was a captivating tale of the dog’s obsession with the electric space heaters during the joke-of-a-winter months in our So Cal climate. This usually is not a problem and we stare in awe as the dogs creep closer and closer to the glowing heat source, somehow always managing to escape without 1st degree burns. A few weeks ago, however, Guapo came seriously close to injuring himself as well as the rest of us when his bedding crept scarily close to the space heater.

I woke up at about 3 am from a dead sleep, and while I knew something had gone awry, I was not quite sure what it was at this point. I sat up for about a minute, gathering my wits, and that was when I smelled it -something was on fire! I crashed onto the floor from my bed and proceeded downstairs where the dogs were resting. As I approached the steps I heard no crackling, saw no smoke, smelled no smoke, and the dogs were not waiting at the bottom of the steps – all very reassuring signs. I turned the corner into the living room and saw Tucker in the corner sleeping on his large smushy pillow, and in the center of the room was Guapo, barely awake and laying on a Hello Kitty pillow that was slowly starting to burn and catch on fire pressed up against the heater.

The smell in the downstairs was starting to creep to our bedroom, and I think the best way to describe it would be a mixture between overdone toast and and marshmallow so black that it shatters when touched. Despite it being one of the few and far between 40 degree nights, I had to set up some fans to waft the noxious scent from within the house. I set up a large fan in the kitchen blowing to the outside and set up a small desktop fan in our bedroom to send the stinky air out our large bedroom window.

The dogs really seemed to have cared less. Guapo was a lot more concerned that I took his soft pillow than he was about the smell or the impending doom a fire would have caused. I do not even think Tucker got out of his sleeping spot, probably because he did not want Guapo to sneak in and steal his already warmed spot. Likewise with Butterfinger, he barely broke into consciousness when I told him what happened, and the next morning the only recollection he had of the entire event was that he thought I was making breakfast! This was one of the few times that being a light sleeper actually came in handy…