OK, that headline is a bit of an exaggeration. But here's what happened. I was gettting ready to sit down and have some dinner. I decided it would be nice to have a fire in the fireplace. I put a Duraflame log in and lit it and laid Kody's blanket in front of the fire.
For a few moments he chewed on his bully stick then moved away from the fire to beneath my feet with his tail between his legs like he was scared. Then he went all the way to the front door with his tail between his legs. He laid right by the front door, which he never does. I figured maybe he had been bit by a spider or something random like that. I was fairly focused on eating and watching TV, a few minutes later I looked up and realized that the fire had become fully lit and the room was filling with smoke!
I used to have a fire every night, so I would just leave the flue open. But it got a little expensive so I decided to go on more of a once a week schedule and closed the flue. I forgot all about it. I opened the flue, and a couple of doors and the smoke was out pretty quickly. It wasn't that bad, the smoke detector didn't even go off. Now Kody is happy again and laying on his blanket by the fire chewing on his bully stick.
What's interesting is Kody seemed to know what was going on almost immediately, right after I just lit the log. He was scared, like he knew what would happen if this continued. Dogs are amazing. It was kind of a Lassie moment, but I didn't realize it.
Hooray for Kody!!