Sun Mote Copse de-light-ed

As though she had understood Avery's yaps, Finley helped her two brothers join her by picking them up and placing them nearby. Avery gave one last pleased yip and then closed her own eyes, soothed to sleep by the rhythmic motion of her mother's tongue bathing her back.

The last pup standing, Sugar, had pressed her head against Elwood's hind leg when the noisiness reached its highest pitch. He reached around to pull her towards him with a forepaw, recognizing that the pup appeared to be overstimulated by all of the sounds in the den. This wasn't cause for too much concern yet, but it was something he would mark in his memory. He licked her between her seemingly sensitive ears in an attempt to calm her.