Page 23

Lady’s owners and Lady were so excited to see each other, though they still looked astounded to see she’d delivered three healthy pups. They were so grateful to everyone for bringing her back.

“I told you she was pregnant,” the wife said, frowning at her mate.

Maisie wanted to laugh. She was sitting on the back seat of the truck with her legs hanging out, the door open, glad to watch the heartwarming reunion. Anne came over to check on Maisie and squeezed her hand. “Sprained ankle, not a break,” Maisie assured her sister.

“I’m so glad for that,” Anne said.

“I know, I know. I thought she was just overeating,” Bruce said to his wife. “We couldn’t be more grateful to all of you. Now that we know wolves own the inn, we’ll be staying here every time we want to visit the area. But the next time, we’ll make sure Lady stays home with friends. And if she begins gaining weight again like this, we’re taking her straight to see the vet.”

Everyone laughed.

“You must have been walking her daily and that’s how she managed to cover that much distance even so close to giving birth,” Robert said.

“We have been. We walk or run five miles a day,” Bruce said. “She loves her walks. We thought she needed them too.”

“That was good for her. It probably made it easier for her to deliver. I need to clean the puppies up a bit and retie their umbilical cords. Lady will need to relieve herself also, but she’s not going to want to leave them for long,” Robert said. “We might as well try and let her out of the box now to do it.”

Even though Maisie and her sister did not normally allow a pet in a room, they allowed it for Lady and her pups this time.

Bruce said to the dog, “You, young lady, need a bath.”

“That will have to be a little later. If you can carry the whelping box after Lady relieves herself, I’ll carry Maisie inside. She sprained her ankle when she was chasing down Lady.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry for all the trouble our dog caused you,” Mary said to Maisie.

“It was my fault. I should have heeded how slippery the rocks could be. I was just glad Lady finally stopped running andshehadn’t been injured,” Maisie said.

Robert lifted Lady out onto the grass. She sniffed a little grassy area, hurried to relieve herself, probably the fastest she had ever done, and wanted right back into the box.

“She’s a really good momma dog.” Robert helped her into the box. “Not all dogs are. She hasn’t had a litter before, has she?”

Bruce and Mary shook their heads. Bruce lifted the whelping box.

“Sometimes first deliveries are confusing for a newmomma dog, but she did really well.” Robert leaned over and lifted Maisie out of the truck and into his arms.

“If you are all set, we’ll head home,” Grant said, as he, Lachlan, and Enrick waited to make sure they weren’t needed for anything further.

“We’re good. And thanks for coming to our rescue. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Robert said, and then carried Maisie into the inn.

She hated that she needed to be helped like that.

Anne followed them inside. “I’ve got everything Maisie said you needed to take care of the pups. Where do you want to do it?”

“In the living room if you have good lighting in there. I’ll take care of them and then Bruce can take them to their room. The plastic container and my shirt are my gifts to you.” Robert set Maisie on a couch.

Bruce and Mary laughed as Bruce set the whelping box on the floor next to the coffee table.

Anne turned on all the lights in the private living room and brought in the supplies and set them on the coffee table.

In the living room, Robert removed a tie off one of the males, disinfected his belly with iodine, then retied the cord with dental floss. With each puppy, he did the same procedure and placed them back with their mom. “Do you have some human nail clippers?”

“Yes, I’ll go get them.” Anne hurried off and returned with them and handed them to Robert. He clipped the tips off the puppies’ sharp, little nails with the clippers so they didn’t scratch Lady while she nursed them. “If you see theirnails are getting too long, just clip them like that.” Once he was done, he went over dietary requirements for a nursing mother and said, “Watch that all the pups are staying warm and nursing. They’ll gravitate toward the heat of their mother’s body, so if you have extra heat on them to keep them warm, it can confuse them about where the food is coming from, so keep that in mind. Don’t handle them unnecessarily for the first couple of weeks. Between two and three weeks, deworming can be done. Paper training and chew toys can be introduced at three weeks. By three to four weeks, weaning can be started. They’ll open their eyes between ten to fourteen days, and they’ll open their ears between ten and twenty days after birth.”

“When can we wash her?” Mary asked.

“Two to five days from now. But don’t keep her away from her pups for too long. Do you know who the daddy might be?” Robert asked.

“A couple of friends of ours visited us from Glasgow, and one, Stuart Michaelson, brought his dog with him—also a Westie—and they all stayed for a few days. Gus and his twin brother, Ike, weren’t big on being around the rambunctious dogs, so we kept the two dogs outside a lot in the fenced-in backyard since the weather was so nice. The dogs ran in the yard, playing with each other,” Bruce said.