This morning, something happened to me that I will never forget.
It was about seven. It was nice to have a peaceful morning outside, and I was enjoying a rare day off. I was so weary yesterday that I couldn’t even walk my dog in the morning. I was sleeping like a rock, and everything in my dream seemed typical and peaceful.
Suddenly, I felt something heavy on my chest. I opened my eyes when I was still half-asleep and saw my dog right in front of me. He laid his paws on me and stared at my face for a long time.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled and closed my eyes again, thinking that he only needed to eat or go for a walk.
But he stayed. He kept pawing at me, licking my cheek, and whining softly, as if he wanted me to come. I still didn’t get why he kept waking me up. Suddenly, he barked very near to my ear when I wasn’t paying attention. Then he jumped on the bed and began barking loudly and aggressively, as if he were afraid.
I opened my eyes again then and saw something strange.
I looked around and smelled something bad that was very intense. I didn’t know what it was at first. But my thoughts clicked a few seconds later: smoke. And it was getting stronger.
I quickly sat up, and my heart was thumping so fast that I could feel it in my temples. I got out of bed, ran down the hall without shoes, and then halted.
There was a lot of thick gray smoke coming from the corridor and already getting into my room. The fire in the living room was blazing and crackling, taking up half the room and sending sparks flying all over the place.
The dog barked at the fire while standing close to me. Then it looked at me again, as if to urge, “Hurry up!”
I took up the phone, called the fire department with shaky hands, and ran outside with him immediately away.
I only realized outside, when we were safe and I was trying to catch my breath, that I would have kept asleep if it weren’t for him. and maybe never would have gotten up.
Later, I learned that the night before, I had been ironing clothes and was so exhausted that I forgot to turn off the iron. The fire started because it was left on the clothes.
I couldn’t remember anything. But my dog smelled the smoke before I did and did everything he could to wake me up.
I might not be telling this story right now if he hadn’t been there.
