Thurs 24th Aug: Coming to terms with the aftermath

Fences and trees down on Lamma

The extent of  the damage on Lamma  caused by the typhoon on Wednesday became clear today, and it's going to be a huge job repairing fences and clearing away the fallen trees while in the meantime the dogs will have to stay confined to a small and secure part of the garden.  There are still some nervous dogs running around outside and they have started to head out into the woods, which is a very worrying situation.   I had to turn back from my morning walk after spotting some of the runaway dogs on the path ahead knowing they would run further if my walking dogs noticed them, so the question now is how to entice them back.

I had a couple of things to do today which meant having to go over to AFCD and Acorn, but for the next couple of days I'll be busy on the repair works.  Of course Sunday's puppy afternoon at Whiskers N Paws will go ahead as I have a lot of young and older hopefuls that need to be seen, but even that is going to pose a problem if the tide is low on my return because my neighbour's concrete jetty, the only available jumping-off point when the sea level drops, was also washed away during the typhoon. In all my thirty years of living on Lamma I've never seen such destruction and it's going to take a long time to get back to normal.

Thanks to all volunteers at Tai Po

At least the Tai Po site was more of a clearing-up situation than the need for major repairs, and I want to thank the many volunteers who turned up to help.  It's amazing to see the support that's offered when needed like this, and by the end of the day there wasn't too much left to do.  We were very lucky in terms of wind direction during the typhoon as it saved us from being obliterated.

Big puppy Tanner went off to a foster home today, so that's one less I have to worry about on Sunday.  He's gone with a view to adoption, and knowing how gorgeous he is I'm hoping  -in the nicest way possible - that I won't be seeing him again, at least not as a puppy in need of a home.

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