Fri 17th March: Baby pups again

Oliver as a puppy, and never adopted

I started the day thinking I would take a day off from my usual AFCD and Acorn routine, but it quickly became apparent that any chance of that was going to be impossible.  For a start one of the tick fever puppies, Rita, wasn't doing well and needed a blood transfusion.  Normally we'd send a dog from Tai Po as a donor but as the van had already left the Homing Centre by then it had to be someone from Lamma.  I nominated big Oliver, a handsome and easy boy, although he wasn't too happy about it.

Then I got a message from AFCD in Pokfulam telling me that there were four baby pups brought in by the dog catchers who were too young to feed themselves, and would I be able to take them.  Bottle feeding babies is the last thing I want or need, so I was very happy to hear from someone letting me know that her friend knew the mother and would take on the pups.  To cut the story short because it ended up being complicated, I ended up going to AFCD to collect the babies as it turned out there was a second litter, with mother, who were the ones that the friend was talking about.

Since I was there anyway I also took the last dog from Stanley Barracks, an older girl who is almost certainly Stanley's mother, not to mention mother to many others by the looks of her.  Stanley himself is doing really well, and as expected is very sweet and friendly away from the terrors of "Death Row". Both mother and son were very happy to be reunited, with lots of tail wagging.

Stanley's mother (with Goldie shown here)

One of the 4 babies

After I'd picked Oliver up from Acorn and got back home with him and the four babies, I had a chance to look at them properly and could see that they are around two weeks old as their eyes are open.  Still, they are young enough to need bottle feeding for at least a while, but by three weeks they should be able to start lapping from a bowl.  They are the equivalent of toddlers now, able to stagger round quite well and find their own way to and from their bed in the corner of the giant cage I use for housing such little ones.  However I really need help with these puppies, and that means either a foster home for all four or two homes taking a pair each.  Please let Cindy know if you can foster by emailing her at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com.  All milk , bottles and weaning food will be supplied.

Louis 7 years old

We received yet another poodle at Ap Lei Chau today, this time a white one, Louis.  I haven't actually met him yet but I hope he's more even-tempered than the chocolate poodle I got on Thursday who is really what I'd call typical of his breed and certainly not suitable for a home with children or inexperienced owners.  Poodles are really far too smart and temperamental for their own good.

Perry is what I'd call a typical poodle