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You’ve delivered plenty of calves. I don’t think puppies are any more difficult than that. But I’ll pray for you.
She smiled at his words. Of course. She didn’t have to worry. God was in control. Still, with all the responsibility on her shoulders, she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t feel concern. Plus, she didn’t want anything to happen to Chewy.
She said a couple of prayers of her own. And then sent a text back.
Thank you. You just reminded me of where my priority is supposed to be and who I’m supposed to trust.
He had been really good for her in that regard. Always pointing her to Jesus. Like a good friend should.
He wasn’t that far away since he was attending a conference in Fargo with Ford Hansen.
She had been excited because she thought she was going to get to see him. With the blizzard, she didn’t know if their travel plans would change, but she had been expecting to see him come back to Sweet Water, visit his family some, and her, and...she thought maybe he was coming home to stay.
He had said four years ago that he was going to be gone for four years, then he was coming back. It had been four years.
She smiled. Because she was graduating soon. She had all kinds of plans for her future, plans that included her Highland cattle and Australian Cattle Dogs. Starting with Chewy’s first litter.
Chewy shoved a cold, wet nose into Ellen’s hand and whined again.
“Let’s go to your bed,” she said, indicating the bed that she had made up a week ago in the mudroom.
Her aunt and uncle were awesome. She had been planning on Chewy having her babies in the barn, but they had insisted that Ellen make a bed for Chewy in the house where it would be warmer.
It was called the mudroom because that was the room that everyone came in when they had been outside. They kept their boots, coats, and hats there and washed their hands at the sink. It was just as clean as the rest of the house but had a tendency to get dirty in the spring and fall when things were more wet than usual. It was a nice, cozy place for Chewy, and one where she would feel comfortable, Ellen was sure.
Shoving her phone back in her pocket, she got a glass of water from the tap and walked out to the mudroom.
Sitting down at the edge of Chewy’s bed, she patted beside her, and Chewy walked onto the cushions, sniffing and whining and nosing around.
She lay down, then sniffed her side as though trying to figure out what was going on in there.
She whined again.
Several hours later, Chewy had been up and down at least twenty times. Ellen had been unable to concentrate on the book she was reading on her phone, and she had ended up getting up and scrubbing Chewy’s water and feed bowls, which were both already completely clean, and beginning to organize the drawer full of gloves and hats and scarves.
With two small children, there were a lot of winter things in the mudroom, and Ellen had everything organized and had leaned against the sink, contemplating scrubbing it down, when her phone buzzed with a text.
She smiled when she saw it was from Travis.
How’s Chewy?
Restless.
Chewy was not acting like herself at all. And while Ellen knew that there wasn’t anything to be concerned about, not yet, anyway, she still couldn’t get herself to settle down.
Is she pushing?
No. She just won’t rest. She’s up and down and up and down, and she whines and then bites at her side.
It definitely sounds like she’s going to have them tonight. How many do you think she’s going to have?
He was trying to get her mind off her worries. She smiled at his attempt. That was what a good friend did. Even though he was at a conference and probably should be paying attention to something other than her. Or maybe it was over for the day.
I want her to have at least three. But I’m hoping she has more.
She wanted to keep a few to train and sell them as trained cattle dogs. She had been training other people’s dogs. They’d bring them when they were ready, and she would keep them for six or eight months, until they had the commands down and were ready to go back to their homes as a dog with a job, rather than just as a pet.
She loved teaching a dog that it could be a help, and loved even more seeing the dog fall in love with its job, doing what it was bred and born to do. They were so happy when they figured out that they could do what they were driven to do, and they could be rewarded for it.
