Weds 4th Oct: Eleven new dogs arrive at Ap Lei Chau

Halo going home and looking as if nothing ever happened

Wednesday is usually my day off, or rather my day at home, but I had to go to Acorn to pick Halo up after being told she was fine and ready to leave following the drama of the cobra bite.  The speed with which the antivenin works is almost miraculous, and if anyone had seen Halo when she arrived at the clinic they would have been convinced she was dying, which of course she would have done without help.

Sweet Caroline is 8 year old

I stopped off at the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre on my way to Sai Ying Pun as the MTR station is just a few minutes walk away, because I wanted to see if the breeder schnauzers had arrived yet.  They hadn't, but a bulldog and a bichon frise had been picked up from a vet clinic where they'd been dropped off from the breeder, and the bulldog - now called Graham by his foster - had already left. Graham is doing very well and seems to be a lovely young boy.

After we took in the previous bulldog, Boris, and he had surgery to lift his eyelids and to remove the excessive folds on his face, I was told about some Facebook posts by bulldog fans who were outraged by the fact we'd destroyed Boris's natural looks.  The irony of this is that there is nothing natural about a bulldog's exaggerated features as the breed looks nothing like the original bulldog of the past.  Inbreeding has produced what can only be described as a misshapen health disaster, just as has happened with the sharpei, and to a slightly lesser extent the pug, French bulldog, Pekingese and all of the flat-faced breeds.   Without surgery on the eyelids these dogs suffer terrible pain from entropian, resulting in eventual blindness, and the facial folds become breeding grounds for infection.  The Facebook posts described the corrective surgery as being inhumane and cruel, which I find quite bizarre having seen the suffering dogs endure when the excess skin on their faces pushes their eyelashes into their eyes.

Graham was in and out

The nine schnauzers arrived as I was on my way home with Halo, and they will be ready to go to homes or fosters by Thursday afternoon.  If anyone is interested in helping, please contact Cindy at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com, thanks.

We were expecting 10 but 9 schnauzers arrived

Two Ap Lei Chau residents left to make a bit of space for the newcomers, and the first to go was new boy Snubby, followed by tiny poodle Jiffy.

Jiffy has a sister in her new home

Snubby didn't have to wait very long for a home

Over at Tai Po it was finally the time for the two ex-breeder chocolate labradors Toro (now Baylee) and Cara.  I have no idea why it took so long to find them a home, but maybe it was meant to be as they left together.  Baylee is officially adopted while Cara was taken on a foster basis, but hopefully she won't be going anywhere soon.

Toro-now-Baylee and Cara leave Tai Po