Weds 11th May: Cruising

Amanda is our newest recruit at Tai Po and she is a very sweet lady

We seem to be in "cruising mode" at the moment, which means nothing of particular note to write about that I haven't mentioned before, and no dogs going out but thankfully none coming in either. That doesn't mean that there are no dogs in need of a place at HKDR, it means that since we are currently at capacity-plus anyone waiting at AFCD will have to stay until there have been some adoptions.

There are messages every day asking if we can go and find this or that dog seen wandering, but that's not the sort of rescue we do or even have the resources for.  It requires a team with a van and special equipment, such as AFCD have, and even then it's very hard to catch a dog that doesn't want to be caught. In any case nine times out of ten whichever dog has been reported is no longer there when anyone turns up, because dogs don't just stand there waiting.  It's quite funny in a way that we will be sent a photo of a dog taken by someone passing by in a car, and then asked to go and rescue it as if we have a magic carpet that will instantly transport "someone" to that location (which is often not even given) to pick up the dog and take it to "somewhere", which is that mythical place of unlimited space and endless time.

Even beautiful pup Lulu was found as a stray

It's not that I, or anyone in animal rescue, doesn't care about such dogs, because of course everyone cares a lot.  It's just that there is a limit to what can be done when there is no kind of legal backing, no laws requiring that all dogs be desexed to stop the endless production of unwanted puppies being born, and no convictions for those who so callously abandon their pets however and wherever they feel like it.  There are hundreds of dogs being dumped, and thousands of puppies being born every year, and trying to help is like swimming against a fast-running current with no hope of ever reaching the other side.  It's a hopeless and thankless task, not to mention a heartbreaking one, and all I can say is that we all do our best, even if that's just not enough.