Broken Boulder oh, give me a break already

By the time Delight managed to get the leaves close enough to Queenie's mouth, she'd already found her position against the wall of the whelping den and begun to push out the first of the litter. It took another few minutes of intermittent pushing for the little one to actually make their way out, but Lord knows everyone knew exactly when it happened. The first sound to escape the den was a pained yelp, followed by an aggressive snarl, finally concluding with the melodic cries of a newborn babe. 

All that one can do is pray that no one came to the den entrance to see what all of the commotion was about, for their sake. 

There was a short period of euphoric recovery, during which Queenie was allowed to simply sit and watch in awe as her child enjoyed its first meal. This didn't last long (because why would it?); another set of paws were pushing their way out before she even had a chance to prepare. Unlike with the first, this pup resisted every part of the experience. No matter what Queenie did to coax it out (including using her teeth to gently pry it away), it wouldn't budge!

The mother and child pair sat in limbo for a while before the latter finally decided to give in. Beside the first was this one placed, albeit much less enthusiastically. Right on the tail of the second came the third, lacking so much as but a cry! Had it not been for the intense beating of the little one's heart as Queenie cleaned the sac from around it, she might have thought that they had a tragedy on their hands. 

I'm done! she called, about an hour or so after the last of the three was born, I think I am, at least.