Scared chihuahua hid in the corner for days. Shelter's 'detective work' found heartbreaking reason.
In a heartwarming video that has garnered 2.8 million views so far, a critically depressed dog can be seen emerging out of the corner, apprehensively stepping towards the puppies she had so dearly missed. Cora was carelessly surrendered to the animal shelter by her previous owner, but her children had been held back. Finding herself all alone, Cora was shocked out of a family system, unable to wrap her head around the missing puppies. The video shared by the Marine Humane Society on their YouTube channel, which goes by @marinhumanesociety, shows the dog hiding in a corner, reluctant to interact with shelter staff.
Cora crouches at the corner of the shelter’s room, afraid and depressed after forcefully parting ways with her children. Even after multiple attempts from the shelter staff to comfort her, she refused to leave the corner of her room. The mother’s heart was completely shattered, which prompted the staff member to request the owner to surrender her babies as well. When the day finally arrived and her children were brought into Cora's cubicle, the poor dog looked at the staff member, stunned, carefully peeped inside the cage to confirm whether they really were her kids, and immediately jumped out of the corner she'd been confined to forever.
According to ABC, Cora, the dog, was abandoned by her owner at the front gate of the Marine Humane, California. The shelter staff admitted the dog immediately and examined her body to identify any abnormalities. Upon realizing that she had just given birth, they thought it was too soon for Cora to be separated from her babies. That's when they contacted her previous owner and urged him to reunite Cora with her puppies. After multiple requests, the owner dropped off the puppies at the shelter, and Cora was finally reunited with her babies. The staff member individually lifted her four babies out one by one, and Cora just couldn’t keep calm.
According to a study by Cornell University, the period of the first four weeks after birth is extremely crucial. The puppies are dependent on their mother for everything. They need to spend time with their litter during that period. Much like humans, the mother’s milk helps build a strong immune system to fight any possible disease. The nutrients and antibodies gained from the milk protect the dog's baby from fighting any alien bacteria in its system. So to speak, it is nearly a crime to separate them before the age of 2-4 weeks. It can depress the mother and the children equally, as was the case with Cora. The official age window to separate them is 8 -12 weeks, by which time, they have socialized and learnt necessary survival skills.
The happy mother trotted around the cage and her babies, finally growing joyful on being reunited with her children. People online were equally ecstatic about their reunion. “Oh my god, she looked so sad in the beginning. You could almost see how grateful she is after seeing her puppies. Great video :),” shared @iamcarbonsix. @falictyelliott8752 chimed in, “Oh, you can just see her saying ‘thank you, thank you for looking after my puppies, I'm so happy they're all here safe with me, thank you, lovely hooman.’”