Weds 20th June: Puppy explosion!

These 5 babies are now in foster homes but we have 6 more coming

I knew that there were puppies at AFCD Pokfulam that would need to be picked up on Thursday, but then I got an email from AFCD Sheung Shui asking if we would take a litter of month-old babies, which of course we will but we need help with fostering.  At four weeks the pups will need to be in pairs, and this time there are six of them so that's three homes.  All special baby food will be provided, and being so small there's not too much that needs to be done or given other than lots of love and cuddles.  Please email Cindy at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com if you can help by taking in puppies for a minimum of two weeks, thank you.

This puppy is 8 months old

The pups at AFCD are mixed breeds of unknown parentage, but from time to time we do get named breed puppies arriving, like today.  Someone walked into our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre with a schnauzer puppy asking if we would take him as they were out at work ten hours a day and didn't have the time to look after him.  This could have been one of the many people who enquired about adoption but were rejected on the grounds that they were out for long hours, and then went and spent a lot of money buying a puppy with inevitable results.

There is a very good reason why people who are out at work all day shouldn't have puppies and that will never change.  Puppies need to have company, play and training, not to mention proper feeding and not the twice daily frugal amount of kibble recommended by the pet shops.  Twenty five little pieces  counted out two times a day, can you believe it?  And the result is food guarding because the puppies are starving.

The schnauzer puppy went straight to a great new home so he's not available for adoption, and he is already enjoying having a schnauzer brother, also from HKDR, to play with.

The schnauzer on the right was also adopted from HKDR as a puppy

Apart from the feeding aspect which pet shops and breeders get so wrong, there's also another thing I want to mention and that is health and poor breeding.  The older schnauzer (in the new home)  had to have surgery on his knees.  He came from a pet shop in Hong Kong somewhere, and even as a baby when he was surrendered I could see his knees were bad. 

I had also contacted another potential home for the new schnauzer who had bought a puppy (now a year old) from an Australian breeder, and that dog has just had surgery on her hips.  So anyone who says they don't want to adopt and would rather buy because they want a healthy puppy is just kidding themselves.  All of our rescue small breeds started life as pet shop or breeder puppies, and the only difference is that we have taken care the surgeries that need doing, or are at the very least aware of them.

Happy Pebble with big sister Tak Tak and poodle friend Kuma

I want to share this lovely photo of a very happy Pebble, who was found as a lone baby in a drain and brought to us.  Pebble has always been a bit shy but so photogenic, and after spending a couple of weeks at Whiskers N Paws he was adopted by a lovely family.  Lucky Pebble (just look at that face!)