She mated with a roving Zappa male in the middle of the third series, but her pups died in a premature birth caused by the strain of her new-found leadership. When the splinter group was reunited with the Whiskers, Rocket Dog returned to being a subordinate female under her mother without any fuss. After Flower's death near the end of the series, Rocket Dog permanently assumed leadership of the entire Whiskers group, and moved the group to a new burrow. Wilson, a roving male from the Commandoes, attempted to mate with Rocket Dog, but was chased off by Zaphod, Flower's former partner and still dominant male. In the last episode of the third series, Maybelline rebelled against her sister's rule, but Rocket Dog was able to maintain leadership, causing Maybelline to leave the Whiskers and start her own group. In the finale of Season 4, Rocket Dog is bitten by a puff adder. Rocket Dog survives the deadly bite. After filming of the fourth series concluded, and before it aired, several newspapers reported that Rocket Dog was killed while crossing a road on 28 April 2008 and that Animal Planet planned to include a tribute to her at the end of the series. A note was also posted to the Friends of the Kalahari Meerkat website; it was subsequently removed along with all other post season updates, at the request of Animal Planet, but was restored after the fourth series finished airing. Born in the third series, male pup Axel was abandoned by Lola, from the Zappa during one of their unsuccessful attacks on the Whiskers burrow. Mitch found the pup and rather than kill the pup as one would normally expect, he took the pup to his mom Flower. And Flower adopted him into the Whiskers shortly before her death. As he adjusted to his new family, Axel tended to follow Mitch around. Although the narration refers to Axel as a Zappa pup, the research number he was assigned by the Kalahari Meerkat Project indicates that he is actually from the research group the Young Ones, which is often used to film Zappa footage. He is named after the fictional character Axel Foley of the "Beverly Hills Cop" film series. Sophie was one of Mozart 's pups seen on Meerkat Manor. She had two brothers and one sister named Sparkle. Only one of her brothers was given a name and he was called Spud. They were born some time after Tosca, Mozart's sister, gave birth to three pups.