The Next day of the rest of my life

The sun was hot and the bugs were bothering us all so we all got up and frolicked in the cool undergrowth of the Boreall forests which were part of our families territory. We claimed it all from the forests to the Western Ocean with its rocky cliffs, though i had yet to make my first visit to that wide expanse.

We headed off towards the stream at the bottom of the rocks to cool off in the mud of the Valley floor. We all still had our puppy coats on and the upper mountains were much cooler but the mud was also nice. I liked the water pools much better. Mother was constantly looking around and smelling the air currants because the large Lions lived in mountain caves hidden by these very rocks. She had a few scars from attacks so she is highly skilled in the awareness of her genetic dna, thus we were all very fast on our feet, even the little ones such as me and my pack of brothers and sisters. 15 of us in all and we were everywhere. We ran in large groups tumbling and jumping and perfecting our skills.

1. Blacky the litter pack leader was a very large male and dark as the night. He was born with skills that i had to learn from trial and error. He was quick with his paws and his teeth always getting the best pieces of meat.
2. Gray socks was always right behind that black swift running shadow of his elder litter mate and always trying to out do him. We all knew that there would come a day when those two would square off.
3. Bolt was faster than the rest of us, probably because after he saw something shiny or bright or fast, he was on it. Reflexes as fast as lighting. His black coat was turning more of a reddish yellow underneath.
4. Fatty was of course the fattest and slowest of us all. Though he was large and probably could have taken us all down, he had a softness about him. Everyone loved to sleep next to ‘fatty’.
5. Me, i am the middle child and the most endearing as i am always pretty close to my mom. I can’t help it. I like her a lot and she finds the neatest stuff for me to play with. I watch her carefully so i can take advantage of lunch time meals.
6. Birtha is the largest of the females in the litter. Black as the night like Blacky but if she opens her eyes she is a dead giveaway as her eyes are shiny orange blue. Birtha hangs around with Fatty as they are always on the look out for food. Fatty smells mom coming back with a fresh kill of horse and Birtha gets there first. She just grabs it up and runs and that is when Swiftness catches up with her and grabs it from behind and takes off running so Birtha doesnt care much for Swift.
7. Swift is a very fast nervous pup with a very long body and long legs. She is everywhere all the time. Never hardly ever sleeps and always busy. She needs an awful lot of food to keep that energy going.
8. Legs is like her name sake. Long and leggy. She also hangs with swift. Swift and legs, they have gotten into some tumbles since the first day they meet each other blind as a bat. Legs would move her legs in and push and squiggle and stick her nose under another pups chin and move them out of the way.
9. Radar, well he hides under the radar so we all kid him. Half the time we do not know where he is. Black pup with a small white tip on the end of his tail but not as much as Flag who is named flag just because his tail is 3/4 white. No way this pup can hide anywhere.
10. Flag is an all black male pup with white on his tail and his chin and some of his toes. We think the mail man got to our mom with that pup.
11. Socks doesnt have much white on his tail but he does have two white socks on his hind legs. One sock on the right hind leg goes up to his ankle and the left leg is just shy of that.
12. Buttons is a small black button of a pup but dont let his size fool you as he has one heck of a temper. His nose and eyes are black as the pebbles on the beach
13. Penny is a off colored black, with a rusty orange undercoat.
14. Princess is a black tipped silver undercoat of a dog that is perfect in every way, well except she is spoiled and always has to get her way.
15. And that leaves pistol the runt of the litter. She is another dark black pup with orangeblue eyes. Her feet are the tiniest ever!

Aunt Grelda and Aunt Seamon both shove their noses in the pool next to the boulders and all hell breaks out, pups go scampering and mom runs towards our aunts in anticipation of a large fish. Grelda has the long snout and Seamon has the tail and the water is everywhere as they tear the fish apart. Mom gets there just in time to grab on to the middle and takes off after the pups soon to catch up and pass us while showing us the way as all the pups now come together and follow the trail of mud, wet and fish smell. Around the corner of some boulders the entire pack of pups run into the back ends of each other and the back end of mom as she is laying down devouring that fish bones and all. Fatty is pushing underneath all our bodies and licking moms face of fish oil. Mom gets up and opens her mouth and spills it all out and we scramble to eat breakfast as she is moved off further into the forest line where the meadow peaks out. Mom stops and stands perfectly still then runs off under the brush to the east. Our Aunts and Uncles going flying past us after her without making hardly any sounds. All we can hear is the rush of the wind as they pass us. What the heck is going on. Legs and Swift take off and Bolt smells the ponies and decides to follow the leader into the forest to the East. All is quiet now as the rest of us are lost in our selves and we hunker into the spaces of the boulders and sniff the air currents and perk our ears. Radar is way under the boulder peaking out and I get pushed a bit into the forest and stretch my neck to look around and sniff the air like mom does. The horse smell reaches me and i turn in that direction. They are edging closer as they graze on the long grass. I can hear the buzz of the flies and misquito’s but i hold my body stiff and pick up one of my front legs, just in case i have to flee. All of a sudden out of the east and south and through the forest trees come what seems like a hundred Dire Wolves, a sound to the right of me gets my attention and out of the forest goes gramps and mama with more cousins and uncles. The horse herd do not miss a beat as they all up and run this way and that way, jumping high into the air and over bushes and brambles and into the forest on the south side they go. Radar moves back further and Pistol is peaking her head out. Penny stands next to me but is ready to jump back under the rock and Buttons gives off a low hard growl as he stares out of the darkness in the direction of the screams and growls and pounding of the earth.

The noise levels down and the dust is thick and the air is heavy with the smell of horse flesh and blood. Mom shows up and we all climb out with tails wagging and tongues licking as we rush her muzzle and she bows her head to regurgitate the fresh kill. My stomach is bursting and i can hardly walk. Mom scratches out a den and digs down deep enough into the coolness to scoot into the earth as we all do our best to gather around her and fall soundly asleep.

Mom is gone when i open my eyes. I look down and smell my brother fatty and my sister Bertha. Over and under is Pistol Radar and Buttons. We are all moving around now and making grunts as we don’t want to move. It is cool in this ground and the evening is coming on us. Mom barks and we all get our ‘alert’ on. Ears up and Eyes open. Me and Bertha venture out and peak around the boulder towards the muddy pools. There she is, and we look around then bite each other as we run to catch up. Mom waits until Buttons and Pistol get there as she sniffs in all the bushes and grass tufts and we all try and figure out what she is smelling for as we squat and relieve ourselves. Then down to the pool of cool water and off we go. We are nocturnal and most of our travels are in the early evening and at night.