Whoops!!

So there I am.  Busily making my supper.  Okay.  Fine!  Perhaps I was distracted multi-tasking.  I didn't mean to do it!  Does that count??  I had a chicken kiev in the oven.  You know those healthy chicken breasts stuffed with butter.  At about the time I jumped up to check it smoke started billowing out of my oven.  Yanking it out, I watched the melted butter smoke.  Tugging open the kitchen window I grabbed my cutting board and began flapping it towards the window.

It was then that it happened.

An ear piercing shriek began to wail out of my fire alarm.  Still flapping my cutting board I hustled down the hallway, tripping over dogs as I hurried towards my objective.  With a few futile arm flaps it became clear that more was needed.  I then tried to shut it off by shoving the cutting board towards the button.  With no relief from the deafening blasts, I zipped back for a chair.  Climbing up I hit the magic button and blessed silence reigned supreme.

I opened windows and then sat down and ate my meal.  It took a few minutes to figure out something else was wrong.  There wasn't a dog in sight.  Odd.  Food.  Kitchen.  No dogs underfoot.  Curious I began looking for them.  I found Tessa curled up on a couch.  Giving her a pat I saw Diva.  She was in a strange location.  Normally, she likes to sit or lay in specific areas.  This wasn't one of them.  Walking over I reached down to give her a pat.  And felt the biggest whole body tremor.  Encouraging her up on the couch, I pulled her body in close to mine.  Quiver and shake followed.  Now really wondering about Ryder I called.  I have no idea where he was hiding but he launched himself like a bullet up onto the couch.  By this point I had Diva on one side, Tessa on the other.  Ryder basically sat himself on Diva and shoved his head into licking range of my arms.  Ryder wasn't shaking but he sure was bug eyed.

Poor dogs.  Traumatized by my cooking skills.  When I left Diva she was still shaking.

Question of the hour:  best strategy to calm an upset dog without feeding the insecurity?