Becky rests her muzzle on her fore paws and closes her eyes trying to ignore the strange feeling that started around her neck but now have spread to her whole body. “I don’t feel so good… I think I’ll take a nap…” Becky whines. Iiummi gives his mate a compassionate lick on the muzzle as the other dogs in the kennel have woken up and is craving the musher’s attention with their barking.
As Iiummi lies down next his mate, listening to her rhythmic breathing he suddenly notice how something strange about his lover’s forelegs. They look strangely swollen and seems to have become thicker. Maybe she’s ill? Iiummi thinks to himself immediately feeling worried of his lover’s health. As he examines his sleeping beauty with both his nose and his eyes he soon discovers more strange symptoms. Her hindlegs and paws have also begun to swell and the first pair of teats on her belly as well. They’ve swelled as if she would have if she was with puppies. But on her only the first pair of teats has swelled… and he had never mated with her, so puppies is probably out of the question thinks Iiummi. Swelling fore- and hindlegs aren’t the symptoms of pregnancy either nor is extensive shedding. He whimpers and nuzzles his mate. “Wake up, Becky…” Becky rolls over in her sleep, obviously sleeping very deeply. “Hey! Come and help Becky! I think she’s sick! Hello!?” Iiummi tries to bark to the musher. But he doesn’t hear Iiummi’s desperate barks because of all of the other dogs barking.