Tues 21st May: Two shocks

It takes more than 2 weeks for a dog to have a matted coat like this

I’d usually be very happy about reuniting a lost dog with its owner, but I certainly don’t feel that way about the skinny boy that was picked up as a stray in Kam Tin.  After visiting the vet today and having a health check, vaccination and Proheart injection, I’d arranged to meet his foster-potential adopter at AFCD after I’d signed the Temporary Keeper form.  After that was done and we were about to leave, I asked if the registered owner had been contacted and found he hadn’t, so it was only after a call was made that we discovered the dog was lost and not abandoned.  It had only run away from its home two weeks ago, but the bad condition of the dog could not have come about after such a short time and he must have been like that for some time.  However, as reluctant as I am to give the dog (who turned out to be a goldendoodle, half golden retriever, half poodle) back, I have no choice.  The best I can do is to ensure the handover takes place at Acorn and that a vet has a chance to talk to the owner about proper and sufficient nutrition and care.  It’s really upsetting as the dog had a wonderful home to go to, and I’m not at all happy about the situation.

Emma the MTR dog doesn't have a microchip!

It’s really very unusual for a stray dog to be claimed back by an owner, and I doubt that anyone will be turning up for the schnauzer cross that came to us today after having been found on the platform of an MTR station.  Another small dog was found in a rubbish dump, and coincidentally it was the same dog that someone was trying to rescue from an old man who said he didn’t want it any more and was threatening to throw it out.  Although I’d agreed to take this dog, the person who had first contacted me about it replied that she couldn’t find the old man or the dog again, and no wonder because the dog had already been tossed out.

This little dog is coming to us on Wednesday, weather permitting

Everyone in Hong Kong will know about the electrical storms that we’ve been having, and although I enjoy them when I’m inside and dry (and knowing the dogs are too), I got caught out today when I thought it was safe to go for my morning walk.  A downpour had just finished and I reckoned it would be a while before more rain would come and the dogs needed to get out, but how wrong I was.  I had been out for about fifteen minutes when the sky darkened and I knew rain was on its way, but still I wasn’t expecting the storm to be directly overhead or the lightning to be so dramatic.  I thought at least that being in the woods I’d be safe, but as the dogs hindered my dash back home by clustering around my legs for protection I grabbed a tree to stop myself from being pushed over.  I got a real (and literal) shock as I made contact with the trunk and sparks flew and crackled, as I had never imagined that a tree could be such an effective electrical conductor.  Trying to remember everything I’d read about staying safe when there was lightning, I crouched down when I thought another strike was imminent and dangled the metal clips of the leashes on the ground as I slithered along the muddy tracks, not daring to hang on to any more trees along the way.  I obviously made it back safely or I wouldn’t be writing this, and the storm moved away as quickly as it had come, but when I made it home and checked all the dogs were there too, there was no Sandy.  I had images of her having been electrocuted as I ran back out and up into the woods, but she wasn’t anywhere on the path and turned up by herself after I’d given up and gone back home.