Sun 29th April: Getting ready for Lady Gaga

Baby Lily had just arrived from her foster home before she was adopted

I was afraid today was going to be a complete washout, but once again the dark clouds has passed by the time we arrived at  Whiskers’n'Paws and the rain stayed away for the whole three hours, long enough for three puppies to find homes. Beautiful and sweet Aria was the first to go, followed by two of the baby pups that had come from their foster home.  This pair were taken from AFCD as two week-olds (along with three siblings) and went to their first foster to be bottle fed, then came back to me for a while before moving on to their next temporary home.  Having reached the age where they could have their first vaccination, they are just old enough to be separated (although ideally I would still prefer another week or so together).  Now the third baby, Cumin, is back on Lamma and alone, at least until her two sisters are returned from their foster home or she is adopted.

Lily's sister, Ginger, was also chosen

Oops, I got the lighting wrong for this happy photo of Aria and her new family

I was surprised that two new, slightly older, puppies weren’t chosen as not only are Harriet and Heidi very pretty, they are also such easy and well behaved girls.  Although I only took them from AFCD a few days ago I’m sure they’ve been in a home before as they are toilet trained and clearly used to living in a home environment.  Harriet very nearly left with a family who came at the very last minute, but with the sampan booked and waiting it was a bit of a rush which wasn’t helped by the teenage daughter pressuring the parents to go to a pet shop to buy a puppy.  It was the parents who were more determined to adopt rather than buy (the mother having already experienced the death of a newly-bought pet shop puppy), and I’m afraid once I was out of sight the daughter’s insistence would win.  I hope I’m wrong.

Harriet (and Heidi) are two really easy and sweet girls

Heidi spent the whole afternoon being carried and cuddled

And to the couple who thought it appropriate to bring their newly-bought golden retriever puppy to play with my puppies, next time I will have a few strong words to share.   I’m also not sure whether the little girl who came running up to me and said “We’re getting a labrador puppy, what food should we buy?” was sent by her parents or came of her own accord, but I’m not there for the benefit of those who choose to support the vile pet trade.  Anyone who buys is on their own and can find their own food, trainer and support.  For those who adopt, we’ll be there to help in any way we can.

Scanning Facebook, as I do, to find updates and information that I might

Magoo and Eurica

otherwise not hear about, I saw a photo of one of our volunteers with the runaway dog, Magoo (the one that I first took from AFCD two years ago and was caught again recently).  He’s now at Tai Po and has already made himself popular with his lovely character, but unfortunately when he was at Acorn being desexed it was discovered that he has hip dysplasia on both sides (another one!) Anyway, posted underneath the photo was a comment from Eurica, the volunteer, that she knew this dog from Wah Fu, the big public housing estate very close to the AFCD Centre in Pokfulam.  She had seen him there for the past two years, and apparently (so I have since found out), AFCD have also known of his whereabouts for some time but had been unable to catch him.  It seems he didn’t have an owner or a real home, but he did have a ‘home’ that he had chosen for himself, a hiding place where he stayed when he wasn’t just hanging out.  He was being fed and was very friendly with people, but it was only when we had the recent heavy rain and he was seen sitting outside in it for two days that he allowed himself to be caught.  So that’s Magoo’s story, and now we need at least a foster home for him so he can have surgery on his hips.

I love these happy adoption photos and wish there were more of them

For today it was Denzo who was the lucky Tai Po dog as he was the one adopted.  As always I’m super-happy to get these photos of our lovely mixes being chosen and I just wish I could fill a page with similar photos every day.

This is the second pair of tickets for 7th May, bids close the day before

If you haven’t noticed yet, Lady Gaga is already in Hong Kong getting ready for her sell-out “Born This Way Ball” concerts.  If you haven’t got tickets but wish you had bought when they were available, tomorrow is the closing day for bids for the two tickets we have available for the opening night (Weds 2nd May).  These are seated tickets values at $1280 each, but we have already received bids exceeding $5000.  We also have two standing tickets valued at $1280 each for the 7th May, and the closing date for bids for these will be 6th May.  Please go to our website or the HKDR Facebook page to place your bids before it’s too late!  These tickets were donated to us so all proceeds go towards helping the dogs, not to any promoter or ticket tout!  So be generous and have fun!

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