This morning, something happened to me that I will never forget.

It was almost seven. Outside, the quiet morning stillness prevailed, and I was enjoying a rare day off. Since yesterday, I had been completely exhausted – I didn’t even have the strength for the usual morning walk with the dog. I was sleeping like the dead, and in my dream everything was calm and ordinary.

Suddenly, I felt something heavy pressing on my chest. Half-asleep, I opened my eyes – right in front of me stood my dog. He rested his paws on me and stared intently at my face.

“What’s up?” I murmured, closing my eyes again, convinced he was just hungry or wanted a walk.

But he didn’t leave. On the contrary, he began persistently pawing at me, licking my cheek, and whining softly, as if calling me. I still didn’t understand why he was waking me so insistently. When I ignored him, he suddenly barked right next to my ear, then jumped on the bed and started barking loudly, sharply, with a worried tone.

At that moment, I opened my eyes again… and noticed something strange

I opened my eyes… and smelled a strange, sharp odor. At first, I didn’t realize what it was. But a few seconds later, my brain clicked: smoke. And it was getting stronger.

I sat up abruptly, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my temples. I jumped out of bed, ran barefoot into the hallway – and froze.

Thick gray smoke was pouring from the hallway, already creeping into my room. In the living room, flames were roaring – greedily devouring half the room, crackling and throwing sparks.

The dog stood beside me, barking at the fire, then looked at me again, as if urging: “Faster!”

I grabbed the phone, dialed the fire department with trembling fingers, and ran out of the apartment with him without wasting a second.

Only outside, when we were safe and I was trying to catch my breath, did I realize: if it weren’t for him, I would have kept sleeping… and might never have woken up.

Later, it turned out that the night before, I had been ironing clothes and, utterly exhausted, forgot to turn off the iron. It was left on the clothes – and that caused the fire.

I remembered nothing. But my dog smelled the smoke before I did and did everything to wake me.

If it weren’t for him… I might not be telling this story now.