Well it was quite a day, but really only half a day before the typhoon moved on and the winds suddenly dropped, although not before causing a huge amount of damage. At my house on Lamma all of the fences were ripped out and an entire seafront wall disappeared, opening the way for all of the dogs to run free. They had a wonderful time, but less so the baby pups who were rescued in the nick of time after their enclosure was swamped with sea water and they were swimming for their lives before being plucked out. It seems hard to believe the sheer power of the wind now that it's all gone, but even walking out from behind the shelter of the house was impossible at the height of the storm. There is still at least one dog, a very timid one, wandering outside but most of them came back once they were tired and hungry. The most depressing result of the typhoon, and one which will have a long-lasting effect, was the amount of plastic and polystyrene that was thrown up by the waves and high tide and left deposited outside my house.
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| It's the same scene all over Hong Kong |
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| The damage isn't serious but the Tai Po site is a mess |
At Tai Po the damage was happily not too severe, but the whole site is a mess and we need volunteers to help clean up. The dogs are all safe, and even enjoyed the wind just as mine did. Despite the T10 signal, which means the most severe typhoon warning, staff and volunteers turned up at both Homing Centres to make sure the dogs were fed, watered and taken care of, so thank you to all who made it out to Tai Po or Ap Lei Chau.
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| Angel is now officially Jojo |
There was even a typhoon adoption, although not actually from either of the Homing Centres but very nice all the same. Angel is now officially Jojo and has become the official sister of Valerie, who was herself adopted by volunteers Yanki and Siu Pang some time ago. Angel/Jojo was taken in when she became seriously ill and subsequently had her spleen removed. She has babesia (tick fever) which her body can't fight having no spleen, so she needs ongoing treatment and special care. Still she is a lucky girl and a happy one too, and she will have all the love in the world until her final day.
Jolene the bulldog couldn't have surgery today for obvious reasons so she's booked in for Thursday. Like Angel/Jojo whose life expectancy is unknown, Jolene is enjoying her days of freedom from years of abuse by the breeder who kept her as a "sex slave". This message from her foster mother was so lovely that I wanted to share:
"Jolene has been sleeping the days away in our kitchen. It's not an exaggeration that her snoring often rivals the foghorns coming from the container ships passing through the Lamma Channel. In between naps, she enjoys her 10-minute "constitutionals," as we call them, that we take 4-5 times a day in front of our house and down the driveway. I noticed that Jolene seemed fascinated by the rain this morning, which led to me to think that perhaps she's never really experienced a walk in the rain. She turned her face to the sky and simply soaked in the feeling of the rain. Several times we had to stop to that she could turn her face up and stick her tongue out to lap at the rain falling down. It was really lovely to see her enjoying such a simple moment".
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