TOP SECRET ANIMAL ATTACK FILES
from The Chicago Tribune
| DOG HELPS HIMSELF
TO DINNER; KITCHEN WILL NEVER BE SAME
By Marcia Sagendorph. Special to the Tribune February 22, 2001 It sounds like an implausible scenario: A dog walks into the kitchen, puts dog food on the stove and turns on a burner. But for the Lemme family of Mundelein, the story is all too real. Three days after Bear, the family's 13-year-old chocolate lab, cooked his dog food on the stove and caused a fire that destroyed the kitchen, Peter and Lori Lemme are still trying to figure out how he managed to do it. "This 70-pound dog has trouble getting off the couch, but when it comes to food, he can do miracles," Lori Lemme said Wednesday. The couple were at church with their daughter, Jessi, 6, on Sunday morning when Bear apparently knocked over a 5-pound bag of dog food that was on a counter next to the stove. They figure Bear somehow bumped against the controls and turned on a burner. The family returned to their Dunbar Street home to find it filled with smoke. Bear has been in the household since he was a year old, and Lemme said her first reaction was to make sure the dog was OK. Peter Lemme found Bear hiding in a corner of the basement, uninjured and presumably still hungry. Charred pieces of dog food were scattered throughout the wrecked kitchen. The entire house had smoke damage, and Lori Lemme said it will take at least a month to get things back to normal. Lori Lemme said church members have offered to provide the family with some home-cooked meals. "It was a terrible thing to have happen, but it really shows how nice people can be," she said. BACK to Animal Attack Files Index Tell a Friend about the Animal Attack Files |
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