Just idly remembering a moment of terror from my teen years. My dad, at one point, decided to burn down our old chicken house. It was a big ol' building. Used to be a schoolhouse in the 19th century.
After it had burned down, all the debris fell into the basement, so there was a big basement / hole in our yard, filled with the smoldering charcoal remains of the building. And I, smart teen, got a cool idea.
I moved / heaved a great big ol piece of timber from our old barn, a wooden beam maybe twenty feet long, probably around eight inches square, and slowly made a bridge across the pit.
My idea was to walk across the beam, balancing over a pit full of still-smoldering / burning cinders. This is the sort of thing I did in my teen years. It was dumb and I know and also... no regrets.
The thing is, if I'd fallen (I was pretty sure I wouldn't) I could have easily been trapped in the pit, slammed maybe knee deep into the burning cinders. I had one basic plan to avoid this: DON'T FALL.
I knew the important thing was to walk normally, easily. If I froze up, I'd be in trouble. So... don't freeze up. Easy! I took the first few steps. Got maybe 3 feet out. 5 feet out. 8 feet. 10 feet. Going pretty well.
And then here's the part that terrified me. I was maybe two thirds of the way across and...
... I looked back and saw that MY DOG HAD FOLLOWED ME OUT.
My dog, a black lab named Red, was inching his way across, and he wasn't doing well. Dogs are not built for tightrope walking.
So I had to make it across myself, moving VERY SLOW, because if I moved fast at all then the beam would bounce a little, and Red would shake and fight for balance.
I made it across, and not long after, Red did too. I hugged him and told him he was an idiot and he gave me a "YOU did it first" look.
Anyway... warn your dog about the dangers of walking over sunken fire pits. They need to know.
