Fri 12th Jan: Ending up where we started

The Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre when we first moved in

After all the searching, the hope, and then the fruitless discussions with potential landlords, we will be staying where we are at Ap Lei Chau.  We had even got as far as signing a provisional agreement on another place but couldn't proceed due to a bizarre requirement by the owner's lawyers, so finally accepted that renovating what we already have is the best option.  At least we won't have to change any of the printed leaflets showing our address as 21 Main Street, or go through all of the upheaval of a move, so there are two good things right there.   Our long-term volunteer Catherine has been amazing in handling all of the negotiations, even if it did all fall through in the end.  So now starts the planning for revitalising the current Homing Centre and seeing what can be done to somehow transform a very small space into something a lot bigger.

Tufty as a baby (top right)

Now we can also get back to the real job of finding homes for our dogs and planning the year's many fundraising events.  Apart from the fact that it's the Year of the Dog (or will be very soon), I was reminded that it's also HKDR's 15th Anniversary, something that I'd totally missed.  HKDR was officially set up in 2003, although I'd been rescuing and rehoming dogs and puppies on an individual basis for many years prior to that, in fact since 1986 when I first moved to Lamma Island.   It seems only recently that we brought out our 10th Anniversary Book, but here we are five years later and nothing much has changed except the dogs that have come and gone.  I still have quite a few still living with me from the very early days, such as Curly, Vivi, Tufty, Bali, Shadow and Lois, all of them fourteen years old, and many of the Tai Po dogs have been with us for a very long time too.

Baby Curly

Quite by chance the theme of this year's Gala Dinner, already booked for Saturday 13th October in case you want to mark that down, will be honouring our long-termers in a very special way.  Although I won't be giving any secrets away, I can say that the planning is already well underway and it's going to be a very different kind of event this time.

Getting back to this weekend, I hope I'll be writing about lots of happy adoptions tomorrow as we have a few interviews lined up and lots of gorgeous new puppies to show off at Whiskers N Paws. See you on Sunday.

A young Bali