quote:

Originally posted by vwf053:
Why don't people like Rocket Dog? She did not do anything to make people dislike her that Flower did not do at some point in her life. Did you not see the end of Season 4, where Rocket Dog was shaking in pain, waiting for her family to catch up with her body wrapped around a tiny pup that could die in the morning cold if left unprotected?

The only difference between Flower and Rocket was that we saw them at different points in their lives. We only saw Rocket's first year as a dominant; all dominants take time to settle in and begin showing strong leadership. If you want to learn how disasterous Flower's first seven months were, read the book "Meerkat Manor: Flower of the Kalahari" by Tim Clutton-Brock. Whiskers lost adults, territory, and several whole litters of pups. It took her time to learn how to lead, but then she became the great meerkat we knew. Rocket Dog was on the same path.

Also, a lot of the negative events in season 4 never happened, or happened differently in reality. The show changes storylines, and they invented a few fatal mistakes for Rocket Dog to add to the drama.

quote:

Originally posted by vwf053:
Rocket Dog is one of my great favorites. She was leader of Whiskers from January 27, 2007 until April 23, 2008. It was only a short reign, but she proved how special she was in that time. She survived a snakebite to the head, but was struck by a car on the main road (a major area road runs through the Kuruman River Reserve, and Whiskers territory) and died only a few months later, shortly after the end of Season 4 filming. This was confirmed by the researchers.

Her only offspring were Nugget and Beaker, two very sweet pups born during season 4. She evicted many females (as is typical for a new dominant-- they normally kick out most of their sisters within the first few years, and allow only the youngest to remain) but she never killed a litter. She helped to raise a lot of pups that were not her own, and seemed very close to Axel and Juno. A lot of people don't like her because it was during her time as DF of the Whiskers splinter in S3 that Len and Squiggy were lost, but this was not her sole fault. The whole group cares for pups, and the whole group is responsible when pups die. It was during a drought and all the meerkats were weak.

The current dominant of Whiskers is Ella (aka Sophie). We are all hoping for a new season of MM to see her, as well as the other Whiskers. There are a lot of new faces now, many pups were born last year when they were not filming, and the S4 pups are adults now. People want to meet them.