Kitaco welcomes the "Korena" litters

If you follow our blog you may recall that around 18 months ago, Sophie had a litter which she attacked at 9 days old and we ended up giving the puppies to Tinky to foster. She was a wonderful mother, having already raised her own babies (which included Serena). She then raised Kora and Marsha as well, as if they were her own.

To this day, Tinky remains our shining star - the mother of all mothers... so it was fair to assume that her maternal instinct would be passed on to her daughter, just as we feared Kora might inherit her mother's "Mommie Dearest" tendancies.

Fast forward to Kora and Serena having their first litters. As luck would have it, they ovulated within a day of each other, which means their pups were due only a day apart.

Serena should have been first, followed by her foster-sister, Kora.

Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, however, so it was Kora who went into labour first and produced a lovely cream girl we named Emma, and a tiny sable boy (only 75 g) that we named Little John.

We waited nervously to see how Kora would react to her babies and for a while there we wondered if our worst fears might come true. She immediately claimed the babies, but also picked them up and frisbeed them around the whelping box a few times before she settled down after 12 hours or so.

Just in time for Serena, daughter of our bestest ever mum, to deliver 2 gorgeous chunky girls we have named Megan and Julliette.

And what was Princess Serena's reaction to seeing her babies?

AAAAAGGGHHH! What are those things? Get them away from me!!!!

Yep, the daughter from the line of our best mothers is terrified of her babies. She wants nothing to do with them. She runs and hides if you try to show them to her. She barks at them if they make a sound.

We had no choice but see if Kora would foster them. We put them in the whelping box with her. She gave them a lick and then claimed them as her own. She doesn't differentiate at all. The babies are all hers now and to be honest, even if Serena changed her mind and decided she wanted to be a mother, after all, she'd have a hard job getting Kora to give up any of her babies.

So - ultimate irony - the daughter of our worst mother ever (until Serena) is now fostering the babies of the daughter of our best mother ever, because she is a complete numpty.

Frustratingly, Serena has tons of milk, while we are supplementing the pups as Kora ramps up production. They are all gaining beautifully and Little John is up over 100g already. He is tiny but mighty.

Kora is so protective and caring of her 4 babies. Serena is lolling about on the bed like she doesn't have a care in the world. She has poked her head into the whelping box a few times but runs away barking when she sees a puppy. Kora is not bothered by Serena's presence, but the two of them were besties before they became mothers, so that probably has more to do with their friendship, than Kora being prepared to tolerate a custody visit.

So we've dubbed this the Korena litter. We are so proud of Kora and so utterly disgusted with Madam Serena who has really blown away all our pre-conceptions about whether or not the maternal instinct is a heritable trait.