Firehouse Fido

In 1905, the Morrises were living happily in their Victorian styled mansion in Sulphur Springs, Ohio, named after its sulfur mineral springs near the town. The Morrises weren’t the only ones very happy. Their pet dalmatians, Ontario and Onyx, gave birth to a healthy little dalmatian puppy. They named her Darleen because she was the most darling thing in the world. Darleen loved her family with all her heart. There was never any day where she wouldn’t want to be with them.  

On spring days, when the Morrises would go on picnics in the park, they would bring their dogs to play. Ontario would teach Darleen how to dig with all her might. Since he was a hunting dog, he wanted to train his daughter to track and dig up vermin. Sometimes he would bury her own toys so that she could dig them up on her own. He believed hardship built character. Onyx would race her daughter to the end of the park and back. She wanted to tap into her old sporting dog roots when she would compete in racing. She had a puppy which put an end to her racing career but she still had it in here. 

On dog days when the sun was too hot, Ontario and Onyx would stay right next to her and they’d help kill her boredom by counting how many spots they all had together. 

“61! That’s more than what we counted yesterday!” Onyx beamed. 

“That’s great! When I grow up, I’m gonna have 300 spots!” Darleen declared, wagging her tail. 

“Whoa! I barely have 250 spots and I’m four years old!” Ontario chuckled. 

“Well I’ll be different!” Darleen announced with pride. Her parents licked her face affectionately and she licked them back with even more love. 

One night, the Morrises went out on a date, leaving their dogs alone in the house. Darleen and her parents were asleep upstairs in their comfy dog bed. As Darleen was lightly snoring, she smelt something very off. She opened her eyes and saw that smoke was rising to the ceiling. An intense anxiety came over her. 

“Mom! Dad! Get up! Something’s happening!” she yelped. Ontario and Onyx slowly lifted their heads up and blinked their eyes.

“What is it?” Onyx asked, tiredly. Ontario noticed the smoke and quickly lost all sleepiness. 

“FIRE!” he shouted. Darleen was only 7 weeks old so this was her first encounter with this strange new phenomenon called fire. They looked downstairs and saw flames consuming the living room. Ontario rushed to the window and tried to push it open with his paws, but it was shut tight. 

“We have to get out through the doggie door.” Ontario declared. 

“But that’s downstairs!” Onyx gasped. 

“It’s our only way out!” Ontario asserted. 

They descended down the stairway slowly and carefully. The intense smoke rising up made their eyes water and could hardly breathe. They began to sweat from the intense heat. 

Darleen looked around at everything. All the things she loved in the living room like her toys and the comfy couch were burning into ashes right before her. 

“LOOKOUT!” they shouted. 

They pushed her forward and the ceiling collapsed on top of them, burying them under the burning wood.

“Mom! Dad!” she screamed. She tried to dig them out of the wood, even with the fire spreading all around her. 

“Darleen! Stop! Get out of here!” Ontario barked.

“No! I won’t leave you here!” Darleen screamed. 

“You need to stay alive.” Onyx insisted, “Promise me you’ll survive and live the day when you have 300 spots.” 

Darleen gasped. 

“I don’t care about that anymore, please don’t die!”  Darleen cried. But her mother ignored that. 

“Please promise me that!” Onyx demanded. Darleen began to cry not just from the smoke. She would rather die with them than live the rest of her life without them. But she wouldn’t want to defy her parents wishes for her even in the face of death.

“I promise.” she muttered. 

“We love you Darleen.” Ontario comforted, “now go for your own safety!” 

With a very heavy heart, Darleen dashed out of the doggie door to get to safety outside. She ran to the end of the driveway and across the sidewalk, looking for any kind of help.

“Help! Help, somebody!” Darleen barked at the top of her lungs. She heard a loud creak come from her house. She looked back and saw the roof caving into the upstairs rooms then the second floor collapsing onto the ground, crushing her parents who were already burning. 

“NOOOOO!” she screamed in anguish. 

The firefighters arrived on the scene in their horse drawn fire engine with their dalmatians barking alongside the horses. They attached the giant hose to a nearby fire hydrant and sprayed gallons of water at the burning house. Darleen watched as they did this from behind the fire hydrant. After 20 minutes, the fire was successfully put out but the house was completely burned to the ground. 

“What’s your name?” a deep voice asked. Darleen looked up and saw an intimidating Dalmatian looking down at her. She was a little scared to speak to him.

“I’m Darleen.” she mumbled softly.

“The name’s Flint. I’m the chief’s fire dog.” he said impassively, “Can you tell me what happened?” 

Darleen started to cry remembering what just occurred. Flint continued looking at her with no expression in his face as if he was waiting for her to let it all out. Once she collected herself, she told him everything.

“I...I was asleep. And….and then I smelt something. The whole living room was on fire. I was too scared to move, then my parents pushed me and the...the ceiling fell on them.” she stammered, still trying to hold back tears, “I shouldn’t have been scared, they’d still be alive if I wasn’t afraid.” 

Flint bent his head down to her level. 

“You shouldn’t blame yourself for things you can’t control.” he said, “You’re lucky to have survived. The reason you’re alive now is because your parents risked their lives to protect you. Everything will be alright, regardless of whether it doesn’t feel like it now.”

Darleen wasn’t sure if she should believe him. 

Just then, the Morris’s car pulled up from around the corner and they immediately pulled over and rushed out to the firemen. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Morris, thank goodness you’re safe.” the fire chief said. 

“Chief Woodard, where’s the dogs?!” Mr. Morris asked, very worried. 

“I’m sorry but the only dog we found alive was the puppy.” Chief Woodard apologized. Darleen rushed to Mrs. Morris and looked up at her whimpering. Mrs. Morris picked her up and cradled her like a baby. Mr. Morris clung to his wife as she started to weep in the fur of Darleen. He began to weep, too. It’s possible that the Morrises and Darleen have never experienced this kind of deep grief before now.