Who would have known that the hours spent at the gym would actually be useful in more than a self-centered way?
It was the last weekend at the beach, and we were gathered around a beautiful camp fire, sipping wine, watching the kids in the ocean, eating the remains of the fridge so we wouldn’t have to take much home when we closed up the house. Darkness descended quite quickly, so we packed everything up and got ready to head up the dune to the car. With all the activity going on, it took us all a moment to realize that Zara had walked into the fire.
Every one of the 10 people in the group froze for an instant, then quickly swung into action. I scooped up the 65-pound dog, E. threw sand on her feet, K. found some water to cool them off, and I ran up the dune with the dog in my arms to the parking lot, where by the light of the car headlights we assessed the damage.
Miracle of all miracles, we saw one tiny burn on one of her front feet. We quickly put her in the car and drove home, where we could wash out the burn and see if we needed an emergency trip to the vet. The smell of burnt fur in the car was horrible, and we could only imagine what could have been…
