I had climbed the ladder to trim branches when, without warning, my dog caught the cuff of my trousers in his teeth and yanked me down. In that instant, I began to understand the reason behind his unusual behavior.
That day remains etched in my memory. The morning sky was heavy with dark clouds, the air thick and unmoving, like the calm before a storm. Rain seemed inevitable. Still, I decided not to postpone the task—I needed to cut the dried limbs from the old apple tree. The ladder had been set up for days, and despite the threatening weather, I resolved to finish the job.
I leaned the ladder against the trunk and began climbing. I had barely taken a few steps when I felt a sudden tug from behind. Glancing back, I froze.
My dog was trying to climb after me. His paws slipped on the rungs, claws scraping the metal, his eyes locked intently on mine.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Stay down!”
I waved him off, but he rose on his hind legs again, bracing on the steps with his front paws. Then he bit the fabric of my trousers and pulled so hard I nearly toppled backward.
“Hey! Are you insane?” I snapped. “Let go!”
But he refused. Digging in his paws, he tugged harder, determined to drag me down.
Annoyance warred with a strange pulse of unease.
“Why is he acting like this?” I wondered. “Is it some game?”
Yet his gaze carried urgency—an insistence, a warning. It was as if he were saying: “Don’t climb.”
I shooed him off again, raising my voice:
“Go on! Stop it! Let me finish these branches in peace!”
But the moment I stepped higher, his jaws clamped my leg once more, jerking me downward. My grip slipped, and dread gripped my chest—one wrong move and I could fall.
I froze, breathing hard. The thought cut through me: if this continued, I would truly crash and hurt myself badly. I needed to make a choice.
Climbing down, I fixed him with a stern glare and whispered:
“Alright. Since you’re so clever, you’re going on the chain.”
He lowered his head in guilt, but I still led him to the kennel and fastened him. Certain I could now work undisturbed, I returned to the ladder. I had just grasped it again, ready to climb, when the unexpected happened. At last, I understood the reason for his desperate behavior.
A searing flash split the sky. Thunder cracked at once. Lightning struck the apple tree directly at the trunk where I had planned to climb.
The bark exploded in sparks, smoke curling into the air. I leapt backward, shielding my face with trembling hands.
For a long moment, I stood frozen, unable to breathe. Then it sank in: had it not been for my stubborn dog, I would have been up there, high on the ladder, right beside the treetop when the strike hit. The thought chilled me.
I turned to look at him. He was standing by the kennel, the chain taut, his gaze steady and full of something deeper than words.
“My God,” I muttered, shivers running down my spine. “You saved me.”
Dropping to the ground beside him, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He wagged his tail gently, as if to say he knew exactly what he had done.
In that instant, I realized a truth: sometimes our animals sense and understand what our human minds cannot.
