Sat 24th Sept: Wangari and Wafer

Four puppies entertain the children

I was scheduled to give a talk at the Helena May as part of the Wangari Lecture series, and it should have been a straightforward matter of meeting up with the HKDR van at the Aberdeen waterfront with a few puppies,  picking up the appropriate materials (such as pull-ups and leaflets) at the office in Ap Lei Chau, and driving over to Central. You know by now that nothing goes according to plan and that the van driver and I communicate through sign language, so I had established through Chinese-speaking volunteers that Hing (the driver) knew where he was going before we set off.  I was told that he did, but as we approached the turn-off to Cotton Tree Drive and I indicated that we should be heading up towards Mid-Levels, Hing insisted no, that wasn’t the way to go, and the result was that a couple of minutes later we were in the middle of Central and firmly stuck in traffic.

We had already taken one wrong turn as I hadn’t been paying attention due to the fact that Cargo, the wannabe corgi puppy, had pooped on the floor (I thought the smell was coming from the puppies in the crate), stepped in his offering and then jumped on my lap.  So I was busy trying to clean myself up while Hing, a stranger to Hong Kong Island having spent his entire life in the Tai Po area, sped past the road we were supposed to be taking.

Anyway, the upshot of all of this was that I had to jump out of the van with Cargo in my arms, leaving Hing to find his own way to the Helena May with the rest of the puppies and all of the other stuff.   After that there was an ongoing multi-way dialogue between myself, Kathy, May and Catherine, as they tried to guide Hing to the right place by remote control, and poor Cargo was left to entertain the children that had come to meet the puppies.  In the end, I went out to Garden Road to see if I could spot the van but found only Hing, struggling with the crate of puppies, having left the van (and contents) parked elsewhere.  Finally everything was delivered and all went well, the puppies being absolute stars throughout the afternoon. You can see a full set of photos here:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150394446224458.414212.786044457

While all of this was going on one of our Ap Lei Chau residents, Sasa the beagle, was being turned into a film star.  Here she is with Sav, one of her co-actors during a break in filming:

This weekend Wafer-now-Stanley flies to the US to start his new life there.  His story is one of those special ones, a tale of a starving, flea-infested foundling picked up by the dog catchers and being transformed (by his wonderful foster family) into a happy and healthy puppy, with a home in America waiting to welcome him.  Does he know how lucky he is?  His full story was posted on Acorn Veterinary Hospital’s Facebook page: