Meet Nora

About Nora....

Date of Birth: February 28, 2024

Parents: Rosie and Sweet Tea

Color: Solid opal

Gender: female (doe)

Status: Retained as a potential breeding doe at HCB

Through no fault of her own, Nora become an underdog at HCB. At birth, she was considerably smaller than her sister Chummy, and had to fight twice as hard to get enough milk from mama Rosie at feeding time. We aren't sure if Chummy was just a piggy or if Nora had a difficult time latching on and getting her fair share, but life was a struggle for her. When Rosie felt satisfied that Chummy had been fed, she hopped out of the nest box, whether or not Nora had managed to nurse at all.

We tried to intervene with supplemental feeding. Nora fought and kicked against every drop of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) that we squirted into her wee mouth via syringe. She came to distrust me, although she holds a certain amount of fondness for Evelyn, who was the rescuer and cleaned her up after messy feeding sessions. (One of us had to be the bad guy, so I took on that role, so she would dislike me and love Evelyn.)

Her determination to avoid syringe feeding spurred Nora to get creative about sneaking milk snacks from Rosie when she was distracted. She also began nibbling hay and sampling the food pellets at a slightly younger age than is typical. Although she has managed to grow and gain weight, she is still a petite little bean and we suspect she will always be on the dainty side.

Personality-wise, this little muffin is actually a very peaceful, gentle soul who enjoys a good cuddle, although begrudgingly at first. Rosie would only rarely snuggle with Nora, so her baby heart longed to be loved and wanted. Rosie didn't outright reject her (she never would have survived if she had), but Nora got much less attention from their mama than Chummy received. I tried to fill the gap, but continued to be the dreaded evil being with the syringe of KMR in her mind, even after she was eating plenty of solid food to satisfy her hunger.

As she has grown and matured, Nora has developed into a comfortable-sized doe, not too large, nor too petite, to be a good mama Bun. Because of her own babyhood, we don't know how Nora will treat kits of her own, but we have a feeling that she will be a very good one.