Only Lola Can Prevent Kitchen Fires

Tonight, as I was preparing my Weight Watchers-friendly dinner consisting of chicken Marsala, mushrooms, broccoli, and roasted red potatoes (hungry yet?) and I had a little mishap with the oven. It started when I went to get the chicken out of the oven and my thumb went over the potholder and touched the 450-degree pan. I screamed, dropped the chicken pan, which subsequently flew into the coils, caused sparks, and then splashed a piece of chicken out into the bottom of the oven. Meanwhile, my mushrooms were going from brown to black and my water for steaming the broccoli was boiling like crazy. As I tended to my burnt thumb and the rest of the meal's components, the chicken that had fallen on the bottom of the oven started to burn. Soon, the smoke alarm was shrieking and I was running around turning on vents and opening windows. Don't ask me where Guy was in the midst of all of this.

Finally, after I had gotten everything back to normal and dinner was served, we sat down to eat and noticed the lack of a certain bearded black monster who usually sticks her nose right into our plates before we get the chance to take a bite. We looked all around for Lola and she was nowhere to be found. Usually we don't even have to call her before dinner - the plates clinking is enough to attract her to the living room, but this time, she wasn't even coming when I yelled her name. Finally we decided to check the basement for her in case she had gotten trapped in the garage (it's happened before). When Guy and I went down the steps, she reluctantly came out of our storage room, looking pretty shaken up. She then came upstairs and proceeded to lay her head down on Guy's lap, not paying any mind to the plates full of food sitting inches away from her soft black nose. Plus, she was shaking. This was totally unlike Lola, so we checked to make sure she hadn't gotten into any chemicals in the basement (she hadn't), and the only conclusion we could come to is that she had gotten spooked when the smoke alarm was going off and went into hiding in the basement.

As traumatized as she seemed, it was actually sort of cute to think that she hid out down there, not to mention that we now know how to keep her from begging for scraps!