Weds 21st Sept: A busy day off

Meadow when she was still young enough to go to Whiskers'n'paws

I started the morning thinking I would be spending my day off at home.  That was until I got a call from doglet Meadow’s potential adopter to say that he could pick her up today, rather than next week as originally planned.  There’s nothing more important than getting a dog into a home, so I said I would being her over to Ap Lei Chau early in the afternoon.  Poor Meadow wasn’t expecting to be woken from her snooze and carried onto a sampan, and then put in a taxi with a total stranger, much less ending up in Discovery Bay in another home.  It’s nothing less than abandonment as far as the doglets are concerned, and it’s very hard for me to hand them over knowing that they don’t understand why, and what is happening, but there is no other way.  Meadow doesn’t actually realise how lucky she is, and I hope it won’t take her long to settle.

On my way back to Lamma, I got a call to say that two of my dogs had been bitten by a snake, a white-lipped pit viper, also known as a bamboo snake. They were lucky that it wasn’t a cobra, a far more deadly snake, but their faces were already swollen to the size of small footballs by the time the sampan reached Lamma and I did a quick about turn and headed back to Acorn Vet Hospital, where I knew they had all types of antivenin.   Fortunately there were no other clients at the clinic when I arrived, and both dogs were quickly hooked up to a drip to deliver the serum, and they’ll be fine.

While I was there I had a look at Gentleman Jim, an older dog that came to us from AFCD a few months ago.  I had been surprised at the time I took him out to find that he had already been desexed because he was a street dog, and as it turned out he was one of those rare cases where both testicles were retained in the abdomen, and one had become cancerous.  Funnily the only other time I’ve seen this was with a pom who was adopted not long ago by Iris, one of the Co-Managers at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre, although it’s not uncommon to find only one testicle, with the other still inside.  It’s vital that in these cases the retained testicle is removed, otherwise it will become cancerous (as happened with Gentleman Jim).  It was discovered because he hadn’t been well and an X-ray had shown a very large sphere inside, which Dr Tony suspected was what it turned out to be.  Lucky Jim!  He should make a full recovery now.

By the time I left Acorn it was early evening, and I got back onto a sampan for the trip home only to be told by the driver that there were two dogs that needed help.  I say “told” but I really mean I got the message via sign language, and I understood “ho leng”, so I indicated in my own sign language “show me”.  I was taken to a houseboat where two young huskies were tied up on very short ropes, and they had obviously been there some time judging by the piles of poo around.  I called Acorn to get someone there to ask to the sampan driver what the story was, and apparently the dogs bark all night (what a surprise) and the owner doesn’t want them any more.  Even though I said I’d take the poor animals, the owner wasn’t on board at the time so there was nobody to give permission and I had to leave them there until tomorrow when we will arrange to take them away.  Once again I was amazed at the tolerance and forgiveness that dogs show, as both are very sweet and affectionate despite what must have been a totally miserable existence.  Imagine a while life spent tied up on a rope no more than a couple of feet long, and huskies too, a breed that has unlimited energy.  At least the torture will soon end for this pair.

After that day off, I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow!