Mon 1st Jan: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I for one am pleased that the holidays are finally over and that we can get back to our usual routine and with that more adoptions.  The homing rate at Ap Lei Chau hasn't been too badly affected by the Christmas and New Year break, but it's been quiet at our Tai Po Homing Centre and for puppies at Whiskers N Paws.

It was touch-and-go for Frostie

Another little dog left Ap Lei Chau today, the ex-breeder Westie Frostie.  She had been in such a bad condition when she first arrived that we were warned she may not even survive, and for the first couple of weeks we were just feeding her lots and hoping she would get stronger - which she did.

As is traditional, Kathy put together a video of adoptions that took place during the year and you can see it here: https://youtu.be/unsp68N7Llg.  We actually have a few more in the pipeline, that is adoptions confirmed but with the paperwork still pending, so we're closer to the five hundred mark than it seems.

We found a flight volunteer so Mary leaves in a few days

One of those dogs is Mary, an ex-Stanley Barracks dog who is about to leave for her new home in the South of France.  Talk about lucky, as I had quite a hard time getting Mary released from AFCD as she was very scared and unhappy there and that was reflected in her behaviour (a lot of barking). It's a sad fact that many dogs are assessed as being unsuitable for re-homing by AFCD vets who don't take into account that the dogs are just terrified, and don't have any training in understanding dog behaviour.   I have had many disagreements over the years about this, and I'm happy to say that the dogs I insisted on taking all turned out to be perfectly fine once away from the overwhelming atmosphere of the AFCD kennels.

Lara and Nancy were both adopted as puppies and subsequently abandoned

Four hundred and eighty six dogs and puppies were officially adopted in 2017, almost a hundred more than the previous year, so that's obviously a very good result although we would like to see it even higher and without the sad and very upsetting returns.  Almost without exception these occurred after a period of total silence from the adopters and no response to emails from either myself or our trainer, Cactus, asking if everything was OK and if any help was needed.  I'm mentioning this now because sadly the year has started with just such a case and an innocent puppy's life ruined.  We can add this one to Rafi, Patchy, Dustin, Eva, Lara, Nancy and the many other adopted-and-returned puppies-now-adult dogs at our Tai Po Homing Centre, of which there are too many to even count.  This is the most upsetting and difficult aspect of this work, and one which I will never understand.