Discovering Fire

I was looking through some old camping photos and came across this one and had to laugh. She looks so young here, and very cute. It's from our first camping trip with Skippy and she had obviously never seen fire before. I remember it was a strange moment that caught me off guard. Something I had totally taken for granted—one's first campfire—was now being experienced by my dog. It wasn't until Skippy became totally captivated with the campfire that it occurred to me that this was not only new for her, but that it would also be a very strange phenomenon for a dog to see the first time.

If you happened to read my September 16th post, "That Something in the Rock," then you have a little glimpse into Skippy's ability to fixate. It's not an exaggeration to say that she stood like this the entire time we had the fire going. She occasionally moved into another position that afforded her a different view of the coals or the flame, but it always looked the same and she never tired of watching it.

Fire is old hat now. She'll still comes close for the heat, but no longer stares intently, mesmerized, as if in a trance as she did here on her first trip. I also remember Anna asking me if I thought Skippy would jump into the fire, as the dog seemed to inch herself closer and inquisitively lean her nose in just a bit further. "No, she's not stupid enough to climb into a fire and willingly burn herself." And then I thought about it a little more; my reason for saying this was that it would make no sense for any animal to do this. Animals instinctively know about the dangers of fire. They don't have to be burned by a forest fire to know it will kill them. But then when has Skippy ever obeyed common sense? I leaned closer and kept my arms free just in case our Jack Russell wanted to see what the fire tasted like.