animals

In general, I like pets... I've had 3 labrador retrievers of my own. But at work, the only 'animal' I like is my colleague who can rip a door off its hinges when he's making light work of forcible entry into a building. Tough, strong guys like that are worth their weight in gold as a crewmate. Other than that, animal, and work, and me, don't mix.

Yesterday's shift we had an alarm. There was smoke coming out of the townhouse when we pulled up. So we took a hydrant, charged the line and made a forcible entry since the owners weren't home. Because I was the first one to cross the threshold, you can imagine my surprise when there was a dog baring its teeth at me. Now I don't blame the dog really, because I was entering his home looking like the Michelin man and sounding like Darth Vader with my breathing apparatus on. But his growling did freak me out and I just prayed he wasn't going to bite me. I was convinced that even with my bunker gear on, the dog's fangs were going to pierce through to my skin.... or worse, go straight for my jugular. All I knew was that I had to get past this darn dog to get to the real safety issue at hand... the fire of course. So with bated breath, I dove in, grabbed the dog and handed him to the firefighter behind me who brought the dog out to safety. Now before you sign me up for firefighter of the year, said dog looked like this:
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I guess I'm not as tough as I thought. But at least I was braver this time than when I once came across an aquarium full of snakes! In that moment there was no shame in screaming like a girl. ;)