A mother dog should never be separated from her puppies shortly after birth, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to the poor four-footer who listens to the name Cora. You could just tell that Cora was extremely depressed and helpless at the shelter. The dog was timid, frightened and her body language truly said it all.

Cora came to the Marin Humane Society shelter in Novato, California after her owner decided to dump her along with another dog.

However, Cora had just given birth, but the owner decided to keep the puppies for themselves. This resulted in an absolutely traumatic experience for Cora, as canine moms often have an immediate attachment to their littler.

In some cases, separating a mom from her puppies can even be deadly.

Plenty of complications can arise if mother dogs can’t naturally nurse their litter for a normal time period. It’s common that they develop things such as mastitis among other complications. As for the puppies, it’s absolutely critical that they get nursed by their mom during the first few weeks as well. If they don’t have momma’s milk for the first few weeks of their life, they can get ill – or worse.

Being separated from puppies is completely against the nature of a mommy dog, who is usually with her pups all the time for no less than three weeks.

A mother dog “doesn’t want to be away from her babies for more than a second,” Dr. Ann Hohenhaus of the NYC Animal Medical Center says.

Cora was dumped at the shelter, but the animal workers did their best to track down the person who abandoned her.

They did their very best to try and convince Cora’s previous owner to surrender the puppies as well, simply because they needed their mom and vice versa. The whole situation was completely unsafe – they were separated from each other way too soon and it was just absolutely tragic.

Cora spent most of her time hiding behind her own pet bed, completely shocked and in stress.

Luckily, the shelter staff was able to recover the puppies, and Cora’s reaction when she finally sees her litter again is absolutely amazing.

A worker came to her pen with a pet carrier in hand, and you can see that Cora was clearly very interested and intrigued. The second that the worker grabs one of the pooches and puts it in mommy’s sight, Cora couldn’t stop wagging her tail and sniffing her babies!

She immediately recognized their scent and the reunion was just absolutely heartwarming and touching to see. Mommy even jumped into the pet carrier to make sure her last pup got out safely.

The animal worker was touched by Cora’s reaction.

Mommy jumped right on top of the worker’s lap, as a warm ‘thank you’ for recovering her lost puppies. As soon as Cora calmed down and was relaxed, she could finally get back to nursing her litter, just how it was meant to be.

With the puppies now taken care of by the shelter, they named them Mosely, Branson, Edith, and Carson – all characters from Downtown Abbey. Both mom and the puppies have been doing absolutely great since they got reunited and are now waiting to get adopted.

Be sure to check out the incredibly touching reunion video below.

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Source: Marin Humane Society, ABC News, KPIX