Max shouted at her and reached to pull the pink stuff from her mouth, but it was slippery and Rosie rumbled at him. She gulped the last bit down and turned to the blankets, snuffling at the thing she’d left there. Out came her tongue, swiping. At first Max thought she was going to eat this too, then he took a closer look and almost burst with excitement. Rosie was cleaning a little white pup. She wasn’t a bad mum after all.

He crouched and watched Rosie busy licking. She pushed the pup all over the place, and its head kept bobbing up and down. Its eyes were shut tight and its ears were funny little flaps of black skin.

Rosie started squatting again and pushed out another pup. She cleaned it, then a third one came out. Then she lay on her side, and the pups wriggled up to her tummy and tried to latch on to her teats. Two of them worked it out quickly, but the last one went the wrong way, right up under Rosie’s nose.

Max couldn’t handle it—on hands and knees, he gently scooped up the pup and pointed it onto one of Rosie’s teats. Luckily Rosie didn’t seem to mind. She lay back while Max helped the pup to hook on. It made him feel good to watch those pups sucking. Rosie looked like she’d done this before.

Mum came out when Rosie had six pups in total. Smiling, she sat down with Max to watch. ‘She’s really good at looking after them,’ he whispered. ‘I’ve been here the whole time and she hasn’t had any troubles.’

Mum’s smile faded a little.

‘Look at her licking them,’ Max said quietly. ‘She’s cleaning them up. Isn’t she clever? What happened those other times? Didn’t she know what to do?’

‘I don’t know, Max.’ Mum’s face had a crumpled look.

‘What’s the pink stuff that comes out with the pups?’

‘That’s the afterbirth.’

‘It’s gross. Why does she eat it?’

‘To clean up, I suppose. Like all mothers.’

Max was horrified. ‘You didn’t eat the afterbirth, did you?’

Mum laughed so hard she had to lie down on the edge of Rosie’s bed. ‘Oh, Max,’ she gasped. ‘You’re so funny. Of course I didn’t eat the afterbirth. Only animals do that.’

Max looked at her, surprised. Didn’t she know humans were animals too?

‘Well, some people eat it,’ Mum said. ‘I’ve heard you can make it into lasagne.’ She was snorting through her laughter. ‘Imagine that. You’d never want to eat lasagne again.’

Max had never seen her so laugh so crazily. Part of him wanted her to stop, but it was fun to see her so happy. ‘I’m glad you didn’t do it,’ he said. ‘And please don’t make lasagne this week.’