Chapter 108 It's Puppy Time

Lexie woke up to someone knocking on the bedroom door.  Getting untangled from Jon, she pulled on her robe and went to the door.

“Momma, something’s wrong with Snowball.” Romeo told her with a scared look on his face.

“Jon, I need you.”  Lexie called as she followed Romeo down to the laundry room.

Jon woke up with a start. Where was he?  Looking around the room he remembered coming home yesterday, or was it today?  Grabbing his jeans off the floor, where he dropped them off while waiting on Lexie to slip into something less power suit.  Pulling on the jeans, he headed downstairs to look for what the hell was going on.

Following the voices, he found not only his wife, but all three boys looking into a packing crate on the floor.

“I came down to bring my laundry basket down to the wash and heard her making a funny noise.”  Jake told them.

Jon looked over Romeo into the box.  There he saw Snowball in the throes of labor.

“Did you call the vet?”  Jon whispered.

“He said she should have no problems, but he’s on standby if she needs him.”  Lexie whispered back.

“See she waited for daddy to come home before she had her puppies.”  Romeo looked up at his daddy and smiled.

“Yeah, since he’s the one responsible for her getting knocked up.”  Jesse joked with his dad.

“It’s going to take some time, I’m going to get dressed.”  Lexie said as she headed back to the bedroom.

“I got a term paper to write, by the way dad, I need to go to Indiana this weekend.  Coach wants me to take part in a warm up. We can go up after the game Friday.” Jesse said as he headed back to his room, by way of the trio’s room.

Romeo pulled up the stepstool and sat on puppy watch.

Jon yawned and headed back upstairs to finish getting dressed.  He found Lexie in jeans and an old sweater, brushing her hair.

“You should have woken me up.”  He came up behind her on kissed her neck.

“I knew you were tired, and we have the rest of our lives to make love.”  She looked at him in her vanity mirror.  “Thank you for going with me yesterday.”

“I didn’t like that weasel and after what Steph told me, I hated him even more.” He walked into his closet and pulled out a shirt that could be thrown away if he had to deliver a puppy.  “Why didn’t you tell me how he was when you were on bed rest?  I had to hear it from Steph months afterwards.”

“You were on tour and I didn’t want to bother you.”  She watched him walk out in a ratty old Kat House tee shirt.  “You going to get that ruined you know.”

Pulling her hair up in a ponytail, she turned to face him.  He was starting to let his hair go a little longer, she knew he should have his dad give him a trim.

“You think Dad and Mom will take one of the puppies off our hands?” Jon asked as he went into his closet to rummage for an older shirt.

“I told them, your mom said yes right away, your dad was a harder sale.  He said he would be the one walking the dog, and he was getting too old to walk the dog.”  Lexie got up and went into his closet and reached into the rummage bag, pulling out a faded Giants shirt.

“Hey that’s an antique, my first Giants shirt.” Jon said as he changed into the shirt she held with two fingers.

“Antique meaning I hear the treads breaking as you put it on or antique that it hasn’t been worn in over twenty years?”  Lexie laughed.

Jon lifted his arm to show a hole in the armpit, and joined in her laughter.

“Mom, somethings happening.”  Romeo ran into the room looking for his parents.

“On the way Romey, go get your brothers.”  Lexie said as she came out of the closet.  After he left she looked at Jon, “Have they ever seen puppies being born?”

Jon came out of the closet tugging the shirt down.

“Not that I know of, why?”  Jon asked as he headed for the door.

“Because, this could bring up some questions about sex and where babies come from.” Lexie said following him to the door.

“Oh, I haven’t thought of that. I guess they learned that in health or gym class like I did.”  Jon said with a straight face.

“Oh Kay if you say so Pinocchio.”  Lexie laughed as they headed to the laundry room.

They got there just as Snowball birthed her first puppy.  Lexie gabbed an old towel she had torn up, once Snowball cleaned her puppy up and checked her baby out, Lexie picked up the puppy up and turned it over.

“We have a little girl.”  She placed the tiny white puppy back into the crate next to Snowball.

Jesse wrote down the first puppy in the notebook he picked up along the way to the laundry.

Within the next two hours three more puppies were born.  Two more girls and one boy, all looked like their mommy.

“Four puppies, we have four puppies.” Romeo said softly.

“Yeah, Snow did a great job.” Jake said as he looked over at the new family.

“I’ll take them to the vet tomorrow to get checked out and weighed.”  Lexie said as she took the notebook from Jesse.  “We’ll pick up some little collars in pink and blue so we don’t have to pick them up to see who is who.”

They started to leave when Snowball started to make little noises.

“I don’t think she’s finished.”  Jesse said as they came back into the laundry room.

“What color is Snowballs puppies’ father?”  Jesse asked as he watched the last puppy coming into the world.

“Brown or black, why?”  Jon asked leaning over his sons.

“Because this one is black, Snowball had a nugget of coal.”  Jesse laughed.

Jon rolled his eyes as he watched Snowball clean up her last puppy.  Once she was done, he took the towel from Lexie and picked the black ball of fur. Jon carefully dried the puppy and turned it on its back.  “Puppy five is a little boy.  I don’t think he’ll need a blue collar on him.”

“Snowball you little,” Jesse started then looked at his younger brothers and stopped.  “Hey dad, maybe Uncle Matt will raffle off one of the puppies for the fan club?”

“That’s not a bad idea, I’ll talk to Matt.”  He looked back at Lexie.  Snowball was her dog, it would be up to her, what they did with the puppies.  “We’ll see, it’s really up to Lexie what she wants to do with the puppies.”

Lexie was on the phone in the kitchen, she had a pot of soup on the stove and her cell tucked under her chin.

“Yes we have five puppies, all white but one coal black.  Yes she came through it with flying colors.  Yes I’ll bring them in tomorrow, around ten?  Okay, see you tomorrow.”  She ended the call and sat the phone on the counter.

“Need some help?”  Jon asked coming all the way in the kitchen.

“Yeah, butter the bread for grilled cheese.”  She turned and smiled at him.

“So we take the pups to the vet at ten, Grand maw?”  Jon snickered.

“Hey Grand Paw, you call your daughter to tell her about the puppies?” She tossed her cell to him.  He caught it and laughed.

“Okay, okay, we’re too young to be grandparents yet.” Jon unlocked the screen and punch in the code to call Stephanie.

“Hey Stephie, wanted to let you know, Snowball is a new mommy.”  Jon mouthed to Lexie Voice Mail “Just wanted you to know, call us and let us know how classes are going, love ya baby girl.” He ended the call. “Must be at dinner.”  He went over and started buttering bread.

Soon they were calling down the boys to eat, Lexie took a tray up to Sally. She sat the tray down and was about to open the door, when it opened and Jesse came out.

“Dinner ready Mom?”  He asked as he stopped short coming out of the door.

“Yep, how was the uh studying going?”  Lexie tried not to laugh.  He had the honesty to actually blush.

“Yeah, Sally was helping me with a problem that I couldn’t quite get a handle on.”  Jesse told her as he headed down to the kitchen.

“I’m gonna have to keep an eye on those two.” She mumbled as she took the tray into the nursery.   “Handle or hand?” She stopped and rolled her eyes at the thought.