I shook my head. “She’s content with her puppies right now. With any luck, she’ll be finished in an hour or so, and you can spoil her with chicken then. In fact, you should spoil her all you want until they’re weaned. She’ll need lots of calories. Just don’t feed her from the table. We don’t want to give her any bad habits for her next owner.”
“Right.” Phoebe nodded. “I’ll spoil her politely.”
I took a bite of my chicken. It was juicy and flavorful. I loved the combination of the tangy lemon juice with the other seasonings she’d added. “This is good.”
“Thanks. It’s one of my staples because it’s easy and it feeds me for multiple meals.”
“Yeah, I like those too,” I said. “I freeze my leftovers so I can pull out an easy meal later in the week when I need it.”
“Cooking for one is a pain,” she agreed, and something wistful passed over her expression, reminding me that she’d been in a serious relationship until very recently. Or at least, I assumed it had been serious.
“Do you miss her?” I asked. “Your ex-girlfriend? And please tell me to butt out if that’s too personal.”
Her lips twisted to the side. “I do, and I don’t, if that makes sense.”
“I think it does.” Actually, it was sort of how I’d felt after Phoebe left me.
“I miss her,” Phoebe said quietly, “but I’m not sure I could ever forgive her, so hopefully the part of me that’s missing her gets over it soon.”
“It will,” I told her.
Phoebe gave me a sharp look, as if she’d just realized what experience I was drawing from with my words. “We should get back to Violet.”
“Yes,” I agreed, rushing through the last few bites of my meal. We put our dishes in the sink and brought our cider with us back to the master bedroom.
Violet was right where we’d left her, nursing her first two puppies. Phoebe and I sat on the bed, drinking cider and talking quietly while we waited for the next puppy to arrive. It didn’t take long. Violet delivered a fawn-colored puppy with a white blaze on its face much like her own. The puppy was her mirror image except that it was a boy.
I cleared away the afterbirth and set the puppy against her with the other two to nurse while Phoebe brought Violet’s water bowl into the bedroom to offer her a drink.
“She’s such a trooper,” Phoebe said as she held the bowl out to Violet. “It’s amazing how animals just know what to do.”
“It really is,” I agreed. “Instincts are fascinating to me.”
“One more to go,” Phoebe said as she rejoined me on the bed.
“Or maybe two if Violet decides to keep us on our toes.”
“Right.” Phoebe twirled one of her curls around her index finger, and I had to look away to keep from remembering how I used to do that. I loved playing with her hair. “I have to admit, this is less stressful than I was anticipating,” she said. “I was pretty freaked out about the whole thing, but now I feel like I can relax and enjoy watching the last puppy be born.”
“I’m glad,” I told her. “Hopefully, the next few weeks will be less stressful than you’re anticipating too.”
“What will I need to do with them?” she asked.
“Not too much, as long as Violet’s taking care of them, and things are off to a good start on that front. You’ll need to weigh each puppy every day to make sure they’re gaining weight. That’s generally more of a concern in a bigger litter, in case someone is getting pushed aside and not getting enough milk. But the first sign of a lot of health problems in puppies is a failure to gain weight.”
“Oh geez,” Phoebe said. “I wasn’t worried about health problems, but now I am.”
I laughed. “You probably don’t have anything to worry about, and if you have any concerns at all, just call me. I’ll have you bring them in for a couple of vet checks and their first vaccinations, and we’ll talk about weaning later. For the first week or so, all you really have to do is weigh them and make sure they look healthy.”
“All right, but you should probably still be prepared for me to call with a million questions,” she said, watching Violet and the puppies.
“Any time.”
“What do you think the fourth puppy will be?” she asked, turning those warm brown eyes on me. “Boy or girl? And what color?”
“Are we taking bets or what?”
“Sure. Loser buys dinner next Friday before my set at V and V.” She paused, frowning. “Wait. Can I leave her like that?”
