Sat 7th July: Last chance

Today (Sunday) is the last day for voting in the Love Ideas HK grant scheme and I know many of you have already supported by placing your votes, but I also know that there are other who haven’t got round to it or who have found the process frustrating, certainly if trying to vote by internet.  So for everyone who gave up, here a link to the Facebook page which is really the easiest method of all.  Right now we’re low in the rankings and unless there’s a last minute surge of support we won’t be getting the grants we need to build new shelters at Tai Po or totally renovate our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre with stainless steel fencing.  Without the extra funding we just can’t afford to do these types of things, as the basic care (like food and vet bills) is as much as we can cover.  So for the last time on my blog (and apologies for the same plea day after day), here’s the link and the Project details.  Share it as much as you can please: https://www.facebook.com/loveideas

(The rankings shown on this image are not current and we are way lower than this).

I was very happy to give up my Saturday off to take the old labrador girl, Maisy, over to our Ap Lei Chau Centre to meet her potential adopters.  She’ll be spending time with them and their small ex-HKDR dogs to see that can all get along before making the formal arrangements, and if her easygoing attitude towards the little ones at the Homing Centre is anything to go by there really shouldn’t be a problem.  Maisy is such a sweet old girl and didn’t deserve to to given up by her previous to be killed at AFCD.  No dog deserves this, but it seems so much worse when the dog has been a faithful family companion for so many years.

Moppel didn't have to wait long

I know with certainty that one dog adopted today will never be given up.  Moppel has gone to friends of mine who already have two ex-HKDR dogs (and some cats) who are loved very much, and one of them looks a lot like Moppel so it was a perfect match.  Moppel is an incredibly sweet girl as well as being so pretty,  and I can’t imagine why on earth she had ended up at AFCD but it was her good luck in the end.

The smile on Peewee's face says it all

Another very happy adoption was that of poor Peewee, the pom with the deformed feet, or ‘cage feet’ as I call them.  Standing on the uncovered bottom of a wire cage his entire life has resulted in the toes twisting, and many breeder dogs have the same thing.  In fact one corgi that we rescued from a dreadful breeding farm some years ago had no toes left at all because of the cage floor he had been forced to stand on.  Try to imagine what it’s like to live in a home that only had wire fencing as a floor and you had no shoes to protect your feet and toes.  The amazing thing is that many of these dogs that have suffered so horribly are still happy characters, and you can see from Peewee’s face in his adoption photo that he is the sweetest little boy.

Will Baloo make it to Whiskers'n'Paws? She's had a cough but is recovering quickly

I’ve been looking forward to this Sunday, not for any reason other than it’s an opportunity to move more puppies into homes, but over the past week the dreaded kennel cough has re-surfaced.  It starts with one little cougher, and before you know it there’s another, and another.  The thing about kennel cough is that it’s not a serious problem and it will go away by itself in almost all cases, but it’s also infectious.  In fact it’s very like the common cold in humans, the irritating virus for which there is still no cure except time.  With puppies and kennel cough they may feel a bit rough for a day, just like a human when a cold is coming on, but then they’re up and playing just like before.  As long as a puppy is eating and behaving as normal then there is no need for any treatment and the symptoms will pass quite quickly.  However it doesn’t help with homing as I can’t take a coughing puppy to the Sunday adoption afternoon.