1x1 A Family Stirs

Below ground two figures remain curled up. One of them is the Dominant Female, Zapora. Beside her are three little pups. They are her fifth litter of pups to ever give birth to and survive the first week. They were born a week ago, but Zaphora still stays in late to make sure nothing happens to her pups.

Meet The Currents
Zaphora, The Dominant Female
Walker, Her Partner and Dominant Male
Gwen, rebellious
Adalla, Loyal
Thing One and Thing Two, the twins
And the curious pups

Zaphora's litter is the first litter of the year. They have bumped the numbers up again after the death of the last litter. The most recent pups are over seven months old.
The three pups are named Azura, Acacia, and Marley. The three had a sibling, but he was stillborn. A sad event for Zaphora, but life goes on. She's determined to make sure these pups make it to adulthood, one way or another.
Below ground as well is Quail, one of Zaphora's oldest daughters. She's the shy one, who is often bullied by her litter mate sister, Gwen. Gwen tends to bully everyone though- Zaphora is on the edge of evicting the rebellious female for good.
Zaphora stirs and emerges, getting a late start to the day. The group is eagerly waiting for her to lead them out, but Zaphora needs to warm herself up first. Her mate and partner in leadership Walker stand next to her and suns himself. He's on the small side for males, but packs a lot of bite in. He's loyal and compassionate, but has much more fight in him than one might think. Rovers think the Currents are an easy mob to rove at when they see the size of the head male, but they end up regretting being so confident.
Off to the corner of the sunning group is Thing One and Thing Two. They are the two surviving pups of Zaphora's third surviving litter. there were three more, but they were all killed by a neighboring group in a burrow raid. Since then the two survivors stuck together like glue, and that's where the names came from.
Zaphora is finally warmed up, so she issues lead calls and heads out. Her group follows her, anxious to get to foraging. It's just a normal day in the mob.
Walker stands sentry first on an old tree stump, scanning the desert before him. It's the middle of the wet season in the Kalahari, and this year has been abnormally wet. The grass is greener and higher than usual, and thus opposes some problems for sentries. They have to climb higher to be able to successfully watch for danger, and it's harder to spot their foot tall group members when the need for an alarm arises.
One of Zaphora's brothers who helped found the group was taken by a hawk earlier this season due to the sentry not being able to see due to the high grass. A few pups have also wandered off under the watch of lazy babysitters and were never found. But all the rain makes food plentiful, and the meerkats are having no trouble getting filled up.
Gwen and Quail have stayed behind to babysit today. This is going to make babysitting interesting for Gwen- mainly because the last time she babysat a litter, which belonged to Quail, the two pups wandered off and were never heard from again. Most likely killed by predators. Quail was devastated, and now she's in no mood to let Gwen be responsible for more unneeded death.
Gwen is not trying to make Quail submit to her this morning, mainly because Zaphora evicted her from the group a little over two weeks ago for insubordination. Gwen was lucky enough to be accepted back in, but recently her rebellious personality has calmed a little. She has had a taste of life outside, and didn't like it.
The day passes uneventfully. The group returns home with everyone accounted for. After a little evening grooming from Walker and a few subordinate females, Zaphora heads below to feed her pups. She's gotten plenty to eat today, mainly from stealing from others, and now needs to feed her three hungry pups.
Adalla stays out the latest of them all- she's trying to stay away from Zaphora. Adalla is heavily pregnant, and could be evicted any day. She finally heads below ground nervously, but does not reappear. She's safe for now.