Fri 12th Aug: Time and tides

Jinks is a super-happy boy, just waiting for a home now

Two doglets were sent off to Acorn earlier in the day to have their legs X-rayed.  One of them, Jinks, had broken his leg some months previously and this was just a check-up to see how the bone had healed.  It had become complicated soon after the break itself because the other Lamma dogs had insisted in “helping” by licking Jinks’s wound where the leg brace was inserted, and it caused an infection.  Luckily we were able to find a temporary foster home for the critical healing period but Jinks is now back on Lamma, his bone (tibia) having fused nicely and now all he needs is to build up the muscle again. Oh, and to find a home.

Margie will need to find a foster before she can have surgery

I’d noticed that older puppy Margie had been limping a bit recently, and thought that she’d just sprained her ankle or something, easy to happen when the puppies are racing about the way they do.  However since her limp was getting more pronounced she went with Jinks to have the leg checked, and the X-rays showed damage to the growth plates at both ends (ankle and elbow).  This means that without surgery the leg won’t grow straight, and because of what happened with Jinks I know nothing can be done until I find a foster home.  If anyone can help, please let me or Maria know (foster@hongkongdogrescue.com).  Margie is a very sweet doglet, fully toilet trained and well-behaved, desexed, vaccinated and all the trimmings.

I don’t suppose there are many people who are even aware of the sea tides and when they are high or low, but for me they play a big part in my life.  Access to where I live is by sampan only (unless you want an hour’s walk from the nearest ferry), and at very low tide the boats can’t get close enough to the end of the pier to pick up or drop off.  At times like this it means climbing over the rocks along the bay to the nearest floating pontoon, and while it’s not much of a problem if it’s just me, there’s almost always puppies, dog food or shopping to be carried.

There was just enough water to get a whole boatload of dog food off the sampan before the tide receded for the next outing, taking a group of puppies for vaccinations.  It’s amazing how heavy a puppy in a crate can get, even when they’re as small as the new Whippeties.

Missy is the grey-ish puppy (my usual not-very-good photos, I'm afraid)

I have four of these gorgeous puppies on Lamma, and the smallest of them, Missy, is my latest heart-stealer (although there’s always space reserved for the Black Fluffies, currently Buffy and Biff).  Missy is a lot smaller than her litter mates, and she’s so delicate and dainty, as well as being very pretty.  I already feel envious of whoever will end up adopting this little treasure, because I know from all the previous Whippety litters that she will grow into a wonderful dog. (She has a male duplicate, Muggle, in foster, and it would be amazing if the two of them could be adopted as a pair).

Do you remember Chungy (brother, I’m sure, of Margaret and Wafer) and his story when he was so sick with pneumonia? He made a complete recovery and is now really ready to go to a home of his own.  His character has developed much the same as Margaret’s, and he is far from the shy youngster he was when he first came to me.

Chungy now