A Scary Accident

Don't let this innocent, intelligent face fool you!

We had a scary and what could have been a dangerous situation the other day. In the past, I have lamented about my Heavy-B’s bad behavior. He’s a charming dog, he truly is, but some of his behaviors are less than charming. He does things like climb on my dining room table and lay there like a 120 lb. cat. He also has started to drink from the toilet if one bib overall wearing wonder buns doesn’t put the seat down. He opens the garbage can and steals whatever he wants. He can also open closed doors, put down the windows in the car, step on the pedal to make the garbage can lid go up, and he steals from the counters. He’s brilliant, but he uses his intelligence for his nefarious purposes. This time, his bad behaviors weren’t funny or charming. They created a very dangerous situation.

My bean made monkey bread the other night. Buster loves a good carb. When he steals from the counter, it is always carbohydrates he steals. He’s stolen GramBarb’s donuts, which she has never forgotten or forgiven. He steals loaves of bread, cookies, cakes, and anything sweet and sugary. After school, Jordan came down to the house, got her after-school snack, and brought it out to the porch to eat with Eric and me. She left the monkey bread on the counter beside the stove. The monkey bread was covered with aluminum foil, and several oven mitts were lying beside it.

Buster has been designated to his crate when we are not in the house with him because he can’t refrain from doing something obnoxious like lying on my dining room table or getting into the garbage can. Unbeknownst to me, his crate was not latched properly. When my bean left the kitchen, he could not resist the smell of the monkey bread and got out of his crate. He jumped up, put his front paw on the stove, and accidentally turned the front burner to its highest setting. Not only did he turn on the burner, but he also dragged the foil covering the monkey bread onto the burner; he must have gotten scared, dropped it, and left it on the burner. The foil extended over the burner and covered the knobs for the stove. Sigh.

I’m not sure how long the stove was on, but I was aghast when I went into the house. The kitchen was filled with smoke, the burner was going full blast, the foil was black and charred, and the knobs to my stove had warped from the heat. Two oven mitts were just inches away from the foil, and one was lying on the floor. The knob to the stove was melting and too hot to touch. I took an oven mitt and tried to turn it off, but it was warped and would not turn. I then got a pair of plyers I kept in a drawer in my kitchen and turned off the stove. The foil was hot to the touch and charred. I threw it in the sink and turned the water on. The monkey bread plate was also hot to the touch, and the house smelled like burnt plastic and hot foil. I was obviously shaken. Alas, this also alerted me that my smoke detectors were not working.

While this was going on, Buster looked frightened and guilty inside his crate. I scolded him and put him outside. Once the mess was cleaned up, I told The Bean and The Bibbed Wonder about our close call. I made it clear that Buster should not be out of his crate alone in the house under any circumstances. I’ve also decided to take the knobs off the stove under advisement from one very smart Jenna. Lastly, I replaced all the batteries in the smoke detectors and tested them.

This scenario could have been bad, really, really bad. I can’t believe that something so innocent could have destroyed our home and killed my dog. It was eye-opening for sure. Eric is now convinced Buster is an arsonist and set on destroying us. Sigh. My dog, whom I love a great deal, needs some serious training. Also, we as his humans need to be very aware of our surroundings and behaviors. Food cannot be left on the counter near the stove in the future. We all have some modifications to make. I have also marked my calendar to change the batteries in the smoke detectors in six months. This could have been really, really bad.

Please take this as a reminder, dear reader, to check your smoke detectors and replace your batteries every six months. As always, stay safe, be smart, be more intelligent than your ill-behaved dog, and keep washing your hands.