Mon 19th March: In praise of older dogs

Cactus and Harryn with Caroline and Agatha

Our HKDR trainer, Cactus, and long-term Ap Lei Chau volunteer Harryn, made a visit to the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong today with two small dogs from Ap Lei Chau.  Caroline is a nine year-old bichon while schnauzer Agatha is eleven, and blind.  Of the two it was Agatha who really enjoyed all of the attention and petting, while Caroline was bored and slept throughout most of the talk. 

Both of these sweet dogs are hoping to find homes of their own, along with all of the other little ones at the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre, not to mention the seniors at Tai Po.  Most potential adopters are asking for small breed puppies, or at least very young adults, and while we do get such dogs in from time to time they tend to appear suddenly and are adopted before their feet even hit the ground.  We all understand the appeal of puppies, and the younger and cuter the better, but the older dogs have their benefits too.  There is a misconception that only puppies will form strong bonds with their human families, but that's not true.  Although most of my Lamma dogs are large sized, the two small ones that ended up staying with me were both mature adults when I took them from AFCD.  I never knew Sandy's age, but Murphy was five years old and came with an attitude that meant he was pretty much unhomable.   Now he's sixteen and couldn't be more "my" dog than if I had taken him in as a puppy.

Murphy still loves his walks and swimming

One old dog that doesn't now need a home is the old Pekingese girl I wrote about yesterday.  After posting her photo I received a message from a woman who said her mother had given the dog away while she was on an overseas trip, so she wanted the peke back. Of course we were happy to return her, and luckily before she had been to Acorn to have a health check.

Carter

However there is another senior who is in need.  Carter is a fourteen year-old gentleman pug who is looking for a new family to take care of him in final years of his life.  His current family are leaving Hong Kong for Canada and although they have taken their dear old boy with them on their world travels in the past, they fear that this last long haul flight would be too much for him.  I know this isn't an easy decision for Carter's family and they have offered to cover his health costs if a loving new home can be found.

We have a gorgeous 14 year old pug named Carter. He has been with us since the beginning. He has welcomed our 3 kids and moved around with us with each relocation in 5 different cities around the world.

We are relocating to Canada in July. And we don’t think Carter can make the flight.
He is nearly blind and deaf. He has arthritis. He is on a specialized diet to keep him liver healthy. And takes daily medication for a seasonal skin allergy. To make matters worse he is a very anxious traveler. We are worried that his health is not strong enough to weather the, close to, 24 hour journey in the under belly of the plane. And we know his nerves can’t take it either. We also worry that once we arrive in Canada the toll of living in service apartments/hotels until we are settled will be too unnerving for him. Not to mention the extreme cold and ice/snow he will face with Canadian winters.