I skipped my exercise program—I wouldn’t have time to run this morning, anyway. Conscientiously donning a bra, I put my cutoffs and sweatshirt back on and returned to the maternity ward.

Mr. Contreras came to the door faster than I’d expected. His worried face made me wonder if I should go back up for my car keys and license.

“She ain’t done nothing, doll. I just don’t know—I called over to the vet, but the doc don’t come in till ten on Saturdays and they told me it wasn’t an emergency, they couldn’t give me his home number. You think you should call and see if you can make ’em?”

I grinned to myself. A real concession, if the old man thought there was a situation I could handle better than he. “Let me look at her first.”

When we passed through the dining room to the hall I could hear Kruger’s snores coming through the bedroom door.

“You have any trouble moving him?” A major altercation could have gotten the dog too agitated for easy delivery.

“My first thought was for the princess, if that’s what you mean. I don’t need any criticism from you; it don’t help me right now.”

I swallowed my tongue and followed him to the living room. The dog was lying much as she had been when I went upstairs, but I could see a dark pool spreading around her tail. I hoped that meant progress. Peppy saw me watching but made no sign. Instead she tucked her head underneath her body and started washing herself.

Was she all right? It was all very well to say not to interfere with her, but what if we let her hemorrhage because we didn’t realize she was in trouble?

“What do you think?” Mr. Contreras asked anxiously, mirroring my own worries.

“I think I don’t know anything about birthing puppies. It’s twenty of ten now. Let’s wait till the guy comes in—I’ll go get my keys just in case.”

We had just decided to make a pallet for her in the car so we could rush her to the clinic when the first puppy slid out, smooth as silk. Peppy attacked it urgently, washing away the afterbirth, using her jaws and her forepaws to settle it next to her. It was eleven before the next one appeared, but then they started coming every half hour or so. I was beginning to wonder if she would fulfill the vet’s prophecy and have a dozen. But around three o’clock, after the eighth little creature squirmed its way to a nipple, she decided to stop.