Life as a Show Dog

Chapter 7

A howl of pain filled the air and woke me suddenly. I forced my stiff limbs up immediately and another howl made a chill go down my spine. Scout darted out of the den and I ran after him. Scout halted in front of the nursery den (Shaylee"s new den) and shot me a frightened glance. I slid to a stop. 

"Puppies?" I quickly yapped. 

"Yes and they're coming!" Scout barked back at me. 

"We don't know how to take care of this!" I whined. 

"Go to the other pack and ask for their medicine dog!" Scout howled loudly. All of the other dogs were starting to gather around. 

"I'll go!" Cometpaw barked. Scout nodded to me and bent down to try to comfort Shaylee. Cometpaw took off and I watched in amazement at how fast he was.

A few minutes later after more shrieking barks of pain from Shaylee, Cometpaw returned with another dog following him. The first rays of sunlight were creeping into the camp as the new dog growled to tell us to back away. 

"Come on, Scout, we better give the medicine dog room so everything goes well." I growled to Scout. 

"Fine." He snorted and slowly began to walk away.

After some time a beautiful, female Australian Shepherd trotted over to me.

"Are you pack leader?" She asked me.

"Yes." I simply said.

"The pups have been successfully delivered, there is a total count of five, and they look like mix-breeds. I would say they are golden-brown German shepherds. Though one of them is more of a brown Golden Retriever." She barked, "There is a small problem with the retriever though."

"I'm glad to know that they were delivered well, but whats the small problem?

"The problem with the runt, I mean the retriever, is that, well, he's sick."

"What kind of sick?"

"He has random missing patches of fur, he is already coughing and sneezing, also he has a small fever."

"Is there any way to heal him?"

"I chewed up some herbs already and had to shove the pulp into his mouth, that will take care of his fever. I think the coughing and sneezing is from the fever. The missing tufts of fur will just have to grow in over time."

"Thank you."

"Where is the father?" She asked after a moments pause.

"Over there." I said and tilted my head in Scout's direction.

"Oh, and my name is Rosepetal." The she-dog said as she trotted off towards Scout.

I quickly decided to take a look at the new puppies and headed over to the nursery. I heard a small cough as I reached Shaylee. 

"Hi." I said quietly. 

"Hello, Jake." Shaylee said softly in reply. I took a few steps forward so that I could see her and the puppies. My heart felt like it melted at first sight of the puppies. 

"I remember when Cloe was that little." I said gently. 

"Cloe has seemed a little depressed lately, I think you should talk to her." Shaylee said in a concerned tone. 

"I will, Shaylee." I said in a whisper. "I bet your pups will grow up to be great dogs." I added. After a moments silence I slowly turned around and then trotted off to congratulate Scout.

----------------------------------

I stepped out of the den and slowly stretched my legs. Scout had already gone to the nursery and the fresh kill pile was well stocked. I noticed Cloe sitting alone near a far off tree. I trotted over to her and sat down.

"Whats on your mind?" I asked her.

"Will we ever go home." She whined in reply.

"Oh Cloe." I said with a sigh.

"Tell me the truth." She growled.

"Maybe one day, but we will have to stay here till Shaylee's new pups are old enough to travel."

"What do you think that Hannah thinks about our absence?" Cloe wined.

"I don't know, Cloe. I can promise you though, we will return home one day."

"You promise?" She whined to me.

"I promise." I repeated.

"You better keep it." She growled as she walked off to the fresh kill pile, where Cometpaw had just reached.

I watched her for a moment more before walking over to Brutis. Brutis had just woken up and was stretching his legs. "You want to do a patrol this evening?" I asked him. "Sure." He simply said.

Suddenly Harvey, Lucky, and Cocoa came running into camp with terrified looks on their faces.

"Whats wrong?!" I barked quickly as I ran over to them.

"We, we were patrolling near the other pack's territory, and, and, well..." Cocoa howled frantically.

"Spit it out." I growled.

"Well, we heard some commotion so we crept into there territory to see what was going on and, and..."

"Come on, cocoa!" I growled.

"Hailey is dead!" He howled.

"What! Tell us everything you saw!" I howled back.

"We saw the Greats Pyrenees dragging her out into the middle of their camp and she was covered with scratches and she was struggling a lot. The pack leader through her down really hard then barked the words "Do it." To a line of seven Dobermans. At those words, they all jumped at Hailey and started attacking her. A few minutes later, they, they all backed off when their alpha barked three times. Hailey was indescribably hurt. Then the pack alpha jump forward and, and, k-killed h-her." Cocoa Choked out.

Scout howled in frustration. I put my head down to mourn for Hailey, many of the dogs followed. I slowly lifted my head up and howled out of respect. The whole pack joined me slowly. A rumble of thunder quickly brought in a storm and I ended the howl as rain started pouring down on us. We all slowly retreated to our dens to wait out the storm and mourn for Hailey some more.