“What?!” Lithium barked at the terrier, who stopped and listed all his information.

“Well, Kiko, your mate has been in a terrible car accident! She is at the vets!” He explained quickly. Lithium gasped and he continued. “I’ll show you!” He said beginning to run after the little terrier. He feared greatly for his mate. They got there about 5 minutes after the little dog had barked at Lithium’s door. Lithium growled and scratched at the door. It opened and he ran in to see his mate. He ran in room, after room, after room, and then…he found her. There lay on a silver and high table was his mate. He gasped and ran to her. She seemed to be barely breathing and she was asleep.

“Oh, Kiko…” He sighed as a tear came to his eye and Scott walked in the door to find Lithium. He gasped at both the sight of Lithium being there before him and the sight of his beloved dog on the table. He had seen his wife but there weren’t supposed to be any visitors. The doctors had said she was on her deathbed. Scott ran to his dog and pet her on the head and patted Lithium as well. Lithium whined and Scott had tears coming to his eyes. A doctor walked in the room and walked towards them and cleared her throat then spoke.

“Kiko, is her name right?” The doctor asked as both Lithium and Scott nodded. “Well, as you know she was pregnant pups.” The doctor said. Scott spoke and shook his head. Lithium didn’t like the sound of it either.

“She has a miscarriage?” He asked the doctor nodded and sighed. Lithium gasped and looked back at Kiko and began to cry, tears streaming down his face. “Well, will she be okay?” Scott asked with a sad tone. The doctor just stood there and cleared her throat again and spoke.

“She should be, if she doesn’t rest then she might have a relapse and she might never heal, causing us to have to put her down.” Scott sighed as a tear slid down his cheek. He would more then likely loose his wife and possibly his dog. “You know, we had surgery done on her and some how, out of all the surgeries I’ve done on pregnant dogs I have to say this is the first one that I have ever seen something like this.” Lithium and Scott didn’t know if it was going to be the best part of the whole thing or not but waited for her to finish. “Anyway we found something in Kiko’s body. Usually when a dog is pregnant and she has a miscarriage we do surgery and the pups are crushed, though when we went into her we saw one that was not crushed. Only one. I don’t know if the puppy will be a miscarriage but we sewed her back up and now she is sleeping.” (I really doubt that is what they do…but hey..I just made it up Ha…so if you really know then tell me what happens.) Lithium had a faint smile. There was some hope in him and kiko having a family. Kiko started to move her head and the vet took her off the table and into another room. The new room the three were in seemed to be more quiet then it was in the other room. Lithium smiled as Kiko smiled up at him.

‘Lithium…I’m sorry…’ She whispered no energy in her. Lithium smiled as a tear slid down his cheek and he shook his head nuzzling her.

‘No…you shouldn’t be sorry…’ He said to her, she smiled faintly. Lithium curled up around his still half pregnant mate. He felt so bad about what had happened to her. ‘We..’ He didn’t want to tell her what the doctor had said about possibly having a pup, but then have a pup and have it die… he felt he needed to tell her anyway. ‘You might still have a pup…’ He said a tear sliding down his cheek. He hoped the pup would survive. Scott’s phone started beeping and he picked it up sitting beside Kiko and Lithium patting her head and back.

“This is Scott.” He answered he listened and he stopped petting Kiko and put his hand to his face and started to cry. “No..no..no…” He whispered as the nurse talked to him on the phone. “It can’t be…” he said tears pouring down his cheek. Lithium already knew what was being said over the phone and he laid here sighing and closing his eyes…only to picture himself in the nightmare that his mate and her owner had been in. he didn’t know what to do. He was just to stay near her and comfort her. They would comfort each other at the same time. When she was well….

                                    3 Days Later                                              

                Kiko had been sent home and Lithium seemed to always be over with her. Scott didn’t mind either. He felt it was good to have another dog around the house. Especially with the loss of his wife, it was a sad time for every one to Alicia’s friends and family it was the same. Even to the humans the dogs seemed to know what had happened to her and were also sad to not have her around the house anymore. The funeral had been set up and there was a date and many people were invited to it, even Bill the man who Alicia and Kiko had seen the day that the accident happened. Kiko’s brother and his owner walked in and Kiko smiled laying in a dog bed that looked exactly like the one that Alicia had bought for her but was more bigger. Dominic smiled and walked over to his sister and nuzzled behind her ear and whispered. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Kiko sighed and nodded. Lithium ran into the room and introduced himself and Dominic did the same. Lithium smiled and curled up beside her. Other people came and Kiko’s mother as well as her father walked into the house and ran over to their daughter nuzzling her all over. They too sat beside her and waited for the next thing to happen. The funeral was not at Kiko’s house but at a graveyard. The dogs weren’t going but they would stay at the house.

                The funeral was over and when you knew it everyone was back at Kiko’s home talking and crying over their loss. Though all seemed to be having a good time, even the criers. Then night came and everyone went home. Kiko’s friends and family, Alicia’s friends and family went too. Lithium was the only one that stayed.

                                   A Couple Months Later                                 

Kiko walked outside and smiled happy to get a breath of fresh air. The morning breeze was a chill to her and she shivered a bit but smiled at it. She awaited Lithium’s arrival. Lithium was now found as a stray of the town cause a while back when his owners left him out on the streets cause they never saw him anymore, so he really had no where to go and was staying at a friends house since Scott wasn’t ready to take care of another dog. A few minutes past and Lithium was there and nuzzling her. He smiled and kissed her cheek. “How are you feeling?” he asked as she lay down near his feet. She had been feeling a little more pregnant then she had been and she smiled.

“It’s getting close.” She said smiling up at him. Scott jumped out of the door and off the porch to his car. Kiko smiled and Scott smiled at her as he drove off. Lithium sighed happily and walked inside. Kiko was close behind him. She went to lie in her bed and felt a pain, she yelped and Lithium came close.

“Are you okay?” Lithium asked nuzzling her. She panted heavily as she laid down deep with in her bed and started to push. She shook her head and spoke roughly.

“It’s coming!”

                It was about twenty minutes and a little brown, black, and white pup lay at her mother’s side. Alive. Lithium was overwhelmed as he nuzzled the little puppy. It was a female. They had to choose a name…a special name…this puppy had been given to them on hope, and Hope would be her name. A couple of months ago where it had been a time of mourn; this was a time of happiness and praise. Scott returned home about seven hours after the birth had happened and He took the puppy to the vet, as well as Kiko.

“Will the puppy be okay?” Scott asked patting Lithium’s head. The same doctor that had seen Kiko before was her permanent doctor now and called them in the back room.

“The puppy will be alright. She is blind but she will make it.” Kiko sighed with relief and smiled at Lithium who did the same. “I want for you to bring her over to me every month. Go to the main office and tell them the date and they will give you a paper on when your date and time will be.” Scott nodded and went up front to get everything done and about ten minutes after Kiko, Hope, Scott, and Lithium where at home.