us that she was having another littler too. And as always we were extremely excited and delighted for them. We were almost ready to head home when a sharp pain made me fall to the ground. I yelped and whimper, and cried, I felt as if I was being ripped apart and twisted into a pretzel. The pain was so excruciation that my eyes rolled into the back of my head and my heart stopped beating. I could only hear the others franticly yell at each other with ways to save me, but I was losing the battle for life, and it would soon be over. But then I heard someone, nudge me onto a metal object and drag me down to the town. The only way I’d of known I was nearing a town was because I heard the cars buzz by. I gasped to air and was granted a breath. I soon was in a room, where others were, I heard dogs, birds, and many more creatures, and was certain I was in the towns vets office. I heard the people yelling and many buttons going off, and before I knew it I was picked up and put on a hard metal table, where I was repetitively shocked with these buzzers and then on the final try my heart woke up, it sped to life again, and I started panting to fill my lungs with air. I still couldn’t see and before I knew it I went into a daze and everything blacked out, I thought I must have died. Everything went by so slowly, and then I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, like I was being cut open. But then I felt nothing at all, I couldn’t hear, nor could I see, or smell, only breath, and I was determined to keep it going, would not die, because dying is to easy….

*WHEN I REGAINED CONSOUSNESS*

                My eyes fluttered open, and the first thing I saw was Aerik, his worried face, his deep brown eyes staring deeply into mine. When he noticed I was awake he started licking my face, and nuzzling me, and then he spoke, “I’m so glad you’re alright!”

                I slowly stood and smiled at everyone, “Sorry for the scare there everyone.”

                I jumped down from the table and sniffed the air. And soon grew worried, where were my pups? I was frantic and panicky asked Aerik, “Where are they?!? Are they okay? Did they die?!”

                I started pacing and then Aerik came over to me and put a paw on my shoulder and said in a calming voice, “There fine love, follow me.”

                We trotted inside a room, still in the vet’s office. Aerik told me we had to stay for one more day so the vet would know I’m okay, and then we were free to leave with our pups. I saw Jenna and Balto in the room, and they smiled at me, Jenna then said, “Were so glad you’re okay. The pups have been looking for you dear” Then she smiled at me

                I poked my noise into the box and saw them, and they were gorgeous, so unbelievably precious. There were three boys and two girls, a total of five beautiful pups. One was tan just like me, with black markings that looked just like he was wearing a mask and all his paws were black, and the tips of his ears were black as well. The second male was black with silver tipped ears and the tip of his tail was silver too, and the right side of his face was silver as well. The last male was all tan, with the same leg markings as me, and a black diamond on his chest, with his left ear black.

                The females were as amazing as the others, the first girl had a pure tan coat, except for a little white diamond shaped marking on her chest and all her paws were white. The second female was just like me, same leg markings, same ear and back marks, same everything, with a little black mask, just like the first male had. I loved them all and nuzzled each and every one of them. I crawled in the box with them and curled up, because even after all that time I had to rest, I was extremely excruciatingly tired, and soon fell into a deep peaceful sleep…

                Soon I was being shook back and forth, I opened my eyes, and saw it was Aerik. I looked and saw the pups were okay as well. Then Aerik said, “Ready to go love?”

                I yawned and sleepily nodded, I picked up one pup and Aerik did the same, and then Balto and Jenna trotted in and picked a pup each too, and then Kodi came in and helped carry a pup, and then we headed off. Homeward bound.

                When we reached home we placed the pups in the birthing den and thanked everyone and gave them the directions back to Nome. When everyone left we loped to our pups, our new family. I couldn’t help but smile, they all looked like us, with a twist of the other in them. They were perfect, absolutely perfect. I curled up around them and Aerik did the same. And I watched as he and the pups drifted off, but I was wide away, and couldn’t sleep. So I walked outside the den and looked up at the full moon and howled a song of the wolves.

                When I trotted into the den everyone was asleep except for one male pup, with the black markings on his face almost like a mask, and then I remembered, we still haven’t named our pups yet. I nudged Aerik and he jumped to his paws and shouted, “Whats wrong?! Is everyone okay?!”

                “Yes of course, but we never named them.”

                “Oh, well umm, the male with the mask should be named Yukon; I’ve always loved that name.”

                “Perfect and the next male that has the silver marks on the right side of his face should be called Alex.”

                “I love it! And the last males name should be called Bailey.”

                “For for the females, the one that looks just like me should be called Sage, and the last girl should be named Sam.”

                “Wonderful, there such beautiful names dear.” Aerik nuzzled me then got ready to lay down, and I did the same. I thought I would hate having puppies, but to tell you the truth I absolutely loved every second of it, and I never thought I see the day when I’d say that, which made me laugh to myself.

                And soon everyone fell asleep, including me.

                When we arose with the new day it wasn’t because we were ready to get up, it was because of the pups. They started squirming around and whimpering. I sighed, and lead the pups closer to me to eat. I soon fell back to sleep, smiling. Aerik yawned and stretched; he jogged for the exit of the cave and whispered to me, “I’ll be home in a few days with food. Love you.”

                I didn’t open my eyes but responded, “Love you too.”

                I pulled myself closer to the pups as soon as I felt Aerik was out of our territory, I didn’t tell him this but I was scared someone would hurt the pups, I sensed danger was lurking for a while now, but gave no thought to it, I just ignored it. Because I knew Aerik would protect us, but with him gone, the pups still extremely young, and me still being weak from surgery, I had no idea how to defend them. I heard the outsider enter our territory, and I grew tense. The puppies started whining because they sensed I was worried and them to became afraid.

                The outsider grew nearer and nearer with every breath we took. I could tell from his steps, that he was a big dog, defiantly not a wolf, but still a threat to us. He must have been strong because his paws dug deep into the ground as he strode along. I knew for sure that it was a male; he seemed a lot bigger than an average Alaskan female dog. He was close by the den, and I let out a deep growl to warn him not to come and closer. But obviously this dog was as dumb as a rock because he kept coming in till he was at the entrance of our den. He was a Malamute, and he stared at me, growling. He staggered forward. I soon noticed a collar he had around his neck that read, “STEELE” and on the bottom it had a number to call if he got lost.

                This was the dog that Balto and Jenna told me about. I growled, “What do you want