Fri 29th June: Only two banana trees down

The whole day went down the pan today as the typhoon approached, and all arrangements were cancelled one by one until I found myself on the sampan for no reason, too late to cancel altogether.  All I ended up doing was popping into the Homing Centre to see how it looked post-painting and with quite a lot of dogs still in foster, and I was reminded of the early brand-new days when we had just a few inmates and lots of extra space. Heeding warnings about the strong possibility of a T8 signal going up by early evening, I bought some essentials from the supermarket and got straight back on the sampan for home.

It was a different matter at Tai Po where not only did May and others stay late to try to secure everything, but volunteer Roni made her way there after work and stayed the night, her favourite dog Oscar by her side.  That’s how dedicated our volunteers are, and I’m very grateful for it too.  Although Roni isn’t in a situation to adopt Oscar, she has made him “her” dog until that time comes, and so it is with many volunteers who form close attachments to certain dogs.  Many of these have ended up as adoptions, but even if that’s not possible it means that for both sides there is a special bond created.  There’s no shortage of new toys or treats for Oscar, even if has to wait for Roni’s visits to get them, and the special walks and days out too.  That’s why I recommend volunteering as an option to those who want to adopt but really don’t have the time for the sort of commitment required.

There were regular Facebook updates from Roni, including one about some boards flying, and this just underlines the urgent need we have to build new and strong shelters, just one of the projects you can vote for in the Love Ideas HK scheme.

If you vote online it’s so easy, just go to www.loveideas.hk and key in HKDR under the search option.  Then click to vote on all 5 projects and that’s it.

You can also vote by phone and again for all five projects in one call.  Just dial 36998800 and follow the easy instructions.  This really means a lot to us and will cost you nothing, so please take a couple of minutes to vote, and ask your friends and colleagues to do the same.

With the worst of the wind coming in the middle of the night it wasn’t a big deal of a typhoon in the end, and I only lost a couple of banana trees.  I’m told there’s quite a mess at Tai Po though, so if you have a day off and want to help with some clearing (registered volunteers only please), or even dog walking of course, please do head up there.  The very good news for me is that I’ll be able to get myself and the puppies over to Ap Lei Chau tomorrow for the regular Sunday puppy adoption afternoon, and even if we have to be indoors rather than the terrace, you can still come by to meet all of the hopefuls.

I don’t think that the doglets will be able to join if it’s still raining (though I don’t know how I’m going to break the news to Bea and Sophie), and that’s a real shame.  I take a few of the older puppies along every week in the hope that someone will notice them and choose to adopt a dog whose looks and size are already established, not to mention the fact that they’re past the puppy biting stage and can walk on a leash etc.  The problem is that they don’t stop to chat for long, and insist on jumping back and forth from one side of the terrace to the other, so you’d have to catch them at the right moment to be able to introduce yourself.   And there inevitably comes a time when I have to stop taking the doglets in favour of the youngsters, and that means they don’t get a chance to be seen unless they move to Tai Po.  From time to time I have to choose the dogs that will leave their only known home on Lamma and head up to the ‘big dog place’, and trust me that’s as hard for me to do as it is for the dogs to understand why.  So I was over the moon to hear that one of the doglets sent to Tai Po not long ago had been adopted.  Hilary is a very sweet girl, like most of my doglets, and now I want to give others the chance (but there’s no space).  Maybe I should hold an Open Day on Lamma and get the dogs onto the beach to be seen and hopefully adopted.  Maybe Buffy and Biff would have their chance then.