Mon 13th Feb: Tai Po Team effort

Today's HKDR rabies vaccination team

There's so much more to running a dog rescue/re-homing organisation than just those two aspects, and you can think of it as a kind of iceberg with the tip being the actual taking in and re-homing of the dogs, and the much larger and invisible part as the vital operational support.   There's the administrative work, the events and fundraising, accounts, and so much more, almost all of it handled by volunteers.  Today at Tai Po there was a mass rabies vaccination effort, with Dr Tony from Acorn doing the honours along with the support of three vet nurses and a big team of HKDR helpers.  In total over one hundred and seventy dogs were given their rabies updates and with that the issuing of new licenses, something that has to be done every three years.  I just did the same thing on Lamma recently for a large number of dogs, the "bulk" quantity being easier in the long run than constantly having to remember which individual dogs need doing.   It's not easy, especially when many of the dogs are shy at the best of times making them difficult to catch for an injection.  Anyway it was achieved, and many thanks to everyone concerned for a great job well done.

Already dark but there are puppies to play with

I was back at AFCD today, picking up the three Stanley Barracks puppies I'd seen last week (along with several adults from the same place).  I'd thought they must be around six months old judging from their size, but when I checked the teeth to confirm I saw that they were much younger at around four months.  I sent a message to Tai Po asking if they would like some large-sized puppies for a change from adults only, and was happy to get a "yes" in reply.  So rather than the pups coming back to Lamma after their health checks and vaccinations they went up to the big Homing Centre, where judging from the videos I've seen (including delighted human squeals) they were an instant and very big hit.  Painter, Rollo and Dougal are such happy and friendly youngsters that I have a feeling they will find homes very quickly, so if you're interested please go to take a look.

Ruby is out of her house!

There was an up-side to the younger puppies having to stay at our smaller Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre, apart from the fact that everyone loves cuddling them of course.  We have a young adult, Ruby, who is super-timid and spends most of her time hiding in a dog house.  She's improved over the months to the extent that she'll come out during the quiet times of the day when there are few volunteers around, but she has never shown any interest in playing, at least that anyone has seen. However today Iris was delighted to see that Ruby was responding to the pups' invitation to play, and once out was even bold enough to approach Iris herself.   It's incredibly rewarding to see these changes after so long, and maybe there is hope for Ruby after all.   I know I have many dogs on Lamma who were extremely timid as puppies and young adults, but who now love attention and cuddles.  They will never be comfortable with strangers or make suitable family dogs, but these very shy types bond closely with individuals that they learn to trust.