Weds 12th Oct: Time for action, not more talk

I don’t know if it’s just the unseasonal rain, but there’s a sense of anticipation in the air without much actually happening.  I know I’m waiting for the Peak to Fong launch (we all are),  as well as a few other run-up events, not to mention the 2012 Cube Calendar which is now at the printers.  The dogs are getting bored with the bad weather, and I’m watching the latest is-it-or-isn’-t-it typhoon tracking.  The Hong Kong Observatory says the rain is going to go away, while Banyan seems to be coming towards us, and I have my mind on Sunday and Whiskers’n'Paws as well as Tai Po and all the dogs there.  At least the indoor section of Whiskers’n'Paws is now open, so even if it’s pouring with rain we’ll be able to stay dry.  The only question is, will the doglets like Charity and her friends take one look at the (low) fence separating the adoption area from the rest of the store (and all those toys and yummy chews on display) and climb straight over?  I have a strong feeling that’s just what they will do …..

I’m also still waiting for someone to offer to take my three baby pups for fostering.  It’s quite incredible how quickly they learn and change, and the difference in only a few days is amazing.  On day one (Monday) they were completely helpless and had to be fed by hand.  By day two they were falling into the (liquidised) food, trying to get to to grips with the concept of lapping rather than sucking, but also pooping randomly, including into the food bowl. By today, just two days after arriving, they are sucking the food up in vast quantities, sleeping in their bed (a cardboard box), and going to the far end of their (small) area for their toilet needs.  They sleep most of the time but are rolling around semi-blindly in play, and in a week’s time they will be able to enjoy proper wrestling.  My problem is that I just don’t have any area for them where they won’t be at risk of being infected with kennel cough, so they are currently on my kitchen counter in a giant cage.  They need more space and I need my work top back!

At the moment these three puppies are just black blobs, little Moomins with triangular ears stuck on the side of their heads.  I don’t know what they will end up as, what shape their faces and bodies will be, but I’m pretty sure I will have seen others like them before.  Looking (as I do) through all the dogs being posted on Facebook by all the other groups and organisations,  they all seem so familiar as they look exactly like previous or current puppies and dogs that I have, or have had in the past.   It makes it very difficult for me, knowing that these puppies have a strong possibility of a very bleak future, when I can see “my” dogs in them, but there are so many, and so few homes for beautiful mongrels.

An adult Whippety meets his identical Mini-Me (now sister)

I know that there will be more Whippety Pups, more Pointer Cross litters, more Hong Kong Collies, Black Fluffies, Shek O Sharpeis, not to mention the All Blacks, black-and-tans and the tan-with-black-muzzle (I must find a group name for them too).   Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) can’t come fast enough for me, and while there is at least an acceptance of the concept by the Hong Kong Government now, I want the talk to end and the action to begin.  We have heard the promises of discussions with District Councils for years, and it’s been too long.  The burden on the small number of animal welfare organisations – like HKDR – is too great, and it should not be the responsibility of private individuals and volunteers to be doing this work.  There is a way to stop the number of unwanted dogs and puppies, and to prevent over-population and so many strays, and that includes banning the sale of puppies in pet shops as well as the introduction of  widespread TNR, plus penalities for those who allow their dogs to breed indiscriminately.  The pointer cross puppies, for example, come from a known source on Lamma yet nothing is done to make the owners of the parent dogs desex their dogs.  AFCD just kindly provide a free “mopping up” service by taking the unwanted puppies, which are then taken on by HKDR, with all the financial and other burdens that come with yet more puppies to look after and re-home. Enough is enough!