Puppies two and three came out one right after the other. The second pup looked exactly like the first. The third pup was much smaller and showed patches of white on its body even while still in the sac.
“She can’t clean them both at once.” Kurt handed Kelsey the nasal aspirator. “Want to suction the nose and mouth of the other one?”
Even though she was a little hesitant to aspirate such a tiny thing, Kelsey knew it needed to be done. Puppies had only a matter of minutes to start breathing after being delivered, and they often needed help from their mom or a human to clear away the sac.
Closer inspection showed the clear, membranous sac was already partially off and not covering the puppy’s face, so aspirating was easier than she’d expected. After a bit of suctioning, the brown-and-black puppy was breathing on her own. “This one’s a girl,” Kelsey said. “And she’s perfect.”
The next several hours passed in a blur. Pepper rested between most of the deliveries, which gave the puppies a chance to nurse. Soon, there were four girls and two boys. Five of them looked like full-bred Rotts, and one, a little male, seemed to be part bluetick coonhound. He had a white underbody speckled with brown and the longest ears Kelsey had ever seen on a dog that was half Rott.
“Looks like Pepper had a midnight rendezvous,” Kurt had said on seeing the little guy.
It wasn’t uncommon in cats and dogs for a large litter to be comprised of offspring from two or three different fathers, especially if the mothers were allowed to roam. Since Pepper had been part of a fighting ring, it was unlikely she was intentionally bred to a hound.
Kurt brewed a large pot of coffee around four in the morning while waiting for puppy number seven to come into the world. He carried up a tray of three steaming mugs of coffee, forks, and the cake they’d brought from the reception.
“Thought the sugar and caffeine might get us through till dawn.” Kurt sat the tray on the old dresser and carried over the cake and forks. He took a seat on the rickety full-size featherbed that Pepper had napped on until she grew too large to get up and down from it easily.
Kelsey continued standing, knowing if she sat on the cozy bed, she wouldn’t be able to get up. Tess collapsed into a straight-backed wooden chair that had been carried in from Kurt’s room. She yawned, rubbing her eyes and tucking her legs into a pretzel shape. She was only a year or two younger than Kelsey, but she had an innocence about her that made her seem younger than her midtwenties.
The cake was perfect. Kelsey’s mouth watered at the hint of almond and the rich, creamy icing. It and the coffee were the pick-me-up she needed. By the time puppy number seven, another girl, had entered the world, Kelsey was ready to keep going until sunup.
Kurt, however, had stretched back on the bed after finishing off a slice of cake and fallen asleep within seconds. He was dozing with his feet still touching the floor. His breathing was soft and even. His shirt had lifted, exposing his smooth, toned midriff, one that she intended to lose hours kissing someday very soon.
Her blood pulsed faster at the thought. If Tess wasn’t here, Kelsey would have been tempted to wake him up for something that had nothing to do with the birth of Rottweiler puppies. Her thoughts brought to mind the last time she’d tried to touch him while he slept. Was he better now? Could he relax enough to fall asleep beside her when total exhaustion wasn’t pulling him under?
Tess, who was squatting beside the laundry basket where they were keeping the delivered pups safe and warm, seemed to read Kelsey’s mind. Perhaps she’d caught the direction of Kelsey’s gaze. “Just like these little guys are going to be, he was a handful even before he went into the service. Dogs were the only thing that could slow him down when he was a teenager. Otherwise he was in hyperdrive. I think I knew him for two years before he willingly took the time to talk to me about anything other than a dog. And honestly, that first conversation was only because I was crying.”
Kelsey had been gathering up soiled towels to take downstairs. She paused while they were still mounded on the floor. “What happened?”
“I can’t remember, so I don’t think it was anything too traumatic. It was probably something one of my cousins did. All I remember is that Kurt bought me my own bag of Sour Patch Kids, and I wished that he could be my big brother and Rob, my dad.” She let out a little sigh. “I think I wished away my big, overbearing Italian family for more years than I should’ve.”
“Well, if it helps, I have two older brothers, and I wished for a sister every birthday until I turned thirteen.”
Tess was opening her mouth to say more when Pepper let out a bark-whine that signaled she was ready to deliver again. Tess had exactly enough time to scoop the eighth puppy from alongside her before Pepper unexpectedly stood and began to pace the whelping box.
“Poor girl. She’s probably exhausted.”
Kurt bolted into a sitting position, his thighs and arms visibly knotting with tension as he cleared his throat.
“She’s about to deliver again,” Tess said.
As quickly as she stood up, Pepper dropped to the middle of the floor and began to bite at her haunches.
“Something’s not right.” Kurt swiped the sleep from his eyes and stepped into the whelping box. He sank beside Pepper, running a soothing hand along her side. She whined and reached up to lick his chin.
“I can see something poking out,” Tess said, straining for a closer look. “But it doesn’t look like the others. There’s something long and, oh, it’s a tail.”
Alarm washed over Kelsey. None of the
