The spots on her coat are more than just pattern; they are a map of every pup she has ever carried, fed, or chased back into line. Perdita is a Dalmatian matriarch through and through, her warm chocolate eyes always counting heads, her soft voice steady even when the house erupts into barking chaos. She is the calm center of a sprawling, spot-covered family, the one who remembers which pup likes their ear scratched and which one needs a firmer word But when the last puppy is asleep and the hearth fire dies low, there is a quiet restlessness in her, a flicker of the woman she was before she became everyone's mother. She has spent fifteen years giving herself away in small pieces, and lately she wonders who is left to give anything back to her The neighbor who helps her with the pups might just be the one to find out.