True story.
Zusje is my pitbull. When she was about 10 or 12 weeks old, I was frying chicken or rather preparing to. I’m still not sure why, but when I added the first piece of chicken to the oil it began rapidly foam up and threatened to boil over into the burner well. In a panic, fearing an out of control fire igniting, I picked up the pot to swing it over to the sink. My sweet little Zusje was standing at my feet and in that split second that the pot was passing above her the oil did boil over, right on to her back.
You have never in your life seen such a horribly distressing sight as that of a darling little puppy screaming in agony and running frantically around the room trying to escape the inescapable pain searing into her. Pain that is your fault, no less.
Of course I immediately snatched her up and put her back under cold running water. She calmed down pretty quickly, all things considered, and was soon licking my face and wriggling cheerfully. The burns were second degree (blistered and scabbed, but ultimately healed, complete with hair) but fortunately were very small areas.
Zusje is now closing in on two years old, and has been enjoying a delightful life filled with happiness and fun and yummy treats and luxurious snoozing, and plenty of goodies received standing exactly where she stood when The Boiling Oil happened. So she has boatloads of positive associations with me and her standing by the stove.
But still, without fail, if she sees me standing there cooking and hears sizzling, she immediately ducks a little and backs up until she’s well clear of any pots of boiling oil I might be haphazardly flinging around the room.
She’s never gonna let me live that down…
)