Tues 3rd April: A new start for mother and pups

Old Pom has a new name to go with his new look - Chester

As a follow up to yesterday’s story about the old pom that didn’t want to die yet, I’m happy to report that he’s doing really well at Ap Lei Chau.  Iris told me that he’s eating like a horse and is very content, and after a shampoo and blow dry he’s on top of the world.  He may be blind but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy life.

Having promised the staff at AFCD that  I would be taking the mother and her six (the smallest one died) newborn pups out today, I felt obliged to do so even though the original foster home that was planned for them had disappeared.  I asked May at Tai Po if there was a chance of using the cleared-out shower room next to the ground floor storage area (that used to be called the Rat Cave before everything was removed) in the main house.  I’d noticed that it was empty and clean when I was there last week, and it struck me as being an ideal place for the dog family. I also promised May that I would take the pups to Lamma once they were old enough, as I know Tai Po has no place for for a doggie kindergarten.  With May’s (somewhat reluctant) approval, I was able to go to Pokfulam AFCD as arranged.

I’d stopped off at the Ap Lei Chau Homing Center first to drop off Yam, a doglet who had been chosen for adoption two weeks ago and was being picked up early on Wednesday.  It was much easier for me to take him over today and have him spend the night, rather than trying to find a sampan on Ching Ming (as well as go over in the morning, a time I need to take care of my own Lamma dogs).  Of course Yam wasn’t too pleased with this arrangement, being moved from the place he thought of as home to Ap Lei Chau, full of noisy strangers and not at all welcoming.  I hoped he could at least make friends with Lizzie and Josie while he was there, but it’s only one night and then he’ll be gone.  He has an ex-HKDR sister waiting for him, a Black Fluffy that I called Maudie when she was with me although she is now Kiwi.  It will take a little while for Yam to adjust to his new life, but he’s a lovely boy and a lucky one too.  He is the last of his litter (which included Seal) to find a home, and now I can close the file on them all.

I also had Ketchup with me, the brother of Scout who was adopted on Saturday.  Ketchup had the bad luck to have been separated from his litter early in life (he must have been really very young) and then ended up at AFCD a full three weeks after I had brought Scout (and siblings) home.  Three other pups that had shared a crate with Ketchup  had subsequently come down with parvovirus, and while there was no vomiting or diarrhoea yet I could see that Ketchup was really not feeling well and wanted to be safe now rather than sorry later.

I can’t say that it was easy persuading the mother dog to get into a cage for the drive to Tai Po, and even moving her pups in there first wasn’t enough to make her think it was a good idea.  After having her microchipped (which she was OK about), in the end I had to resort to the leash-through-the-cage-bars trick, which means attaching the leash to the dog, then feeding it through to the back of the cage and pulling.  The dog has no option but to get into the crate/cage as it’s being pulled from the other end, and while it’s not the most gentle way it works, and it’s very quick.  The only problem now was that the pups were being squashed, and they were still squeaking as we left the Centre with the now-full cage in the back of the van. I was worried that because of her stress the mother would ignore the plight of her babies, but just when it was becoming almost too much to bear and I was about to ask Hing to stop the van, she moved herself over so the two trapped pups could be released.  They arrived safely in Tai Po and it’s really now down to the mother to take care of her family while we take care of her.  I have a feeling that “Auntie” Sue, a very well-known volunteer at Tai Po, will be making sure that there is plenty of special food supplied to help with milk production.

This is the old timid Sticky. Not any more!

As Ketchup had been sharing a space with puppy Sticky, when I saw that Ketchup wasn’t well I had to move Sticky away from him.  There was nowhere for him to go except with all the big dogs, and as he’d been trying to climb out of his pen anyway I decided to see how it would work.  It was obviously just what Sticky needed, because in the short time that he’s been running freely with the other dogs he’s changed from a wallflower to an almost-normal puppy who likes to be picked up and follows me around whenever he can.  He’s also growing like a weed so he’s really ready for a home now.