Fri 6th July: New Life Saver Club recruits

1 year-old Hobo has at least found a foster home

There are a lot of HKDR dogs who fly under the radar, so to speak, as for one reason or another they're not suitable for re-homing.  One of them, a very pretty medium-sized older puppy called Samantha, went for desexing today, something I didn't think would be possible given that she has a hole in the heart very similar to Hobo, the shiba inu.  At a year old there was a rush of enquiries for Hobo when he first came to us, but after finding out about his heart condition all potential adopters melted away.  Luckily Hobo was taken for fostering, and at this stage in his life is showing no signs of illness, the same as Samantha.  That will come later when the heart starts to enlarge due to the extra burden, and then both dogs will have to take medication.  Life expectancy will be short anyway.

Nina's feet are so painful

Samantha shares her Lamma enclosure with another dog who has a rare auto-immune mediated disease, which was luckily spotted by Dr Tony at Acorn when Nina had gone for X-rays and joint taps to find out why she was walking like an old lady when she is still a young dog.  Four years ago we homed a puppy for the second time after his first adopter had returned him saying he needed to be euthanised.  He had a condition where the pads of his paws were peeling off, making every step extremely painful.  I asked that the puppy be returned to Acorn, and rather than have him put to sleep he was adopted by another family and given the name Forrest (Gump).  Several of you may know Forrest as he is a frequent visitor to Whiskers n Paws wearing his protective shoes, and the great news is that he is finally getting better.   Unfortunately Nina is still too nervous to allow me to put shoes on her but I hope something can be done to help, and that like Forrest she will eventually grow out of the problem.  (In the video you can also see Fuzzy Monkey who has become Nina's companion).

Forrest (l) with big brother Lox. also an ex-HKDR dog

Dogs like Samantha, Nina and Hobo will be taken care of for the rest of their lives, however long or short that may be, and these are the cases that we hope can be sponsored via the Life Saver Club.  If you are interested in finding out more please email our Life Saver Club volunteer Shaline at lifesaver@hongkongdogrescue.com, or visit our website www.hongkongdogrescue.com for details.


We're expecting some new dogs to arrive at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre on Saturday, young poodles that were used as show dogs, but I don't post details until they are actually with us.  Too many times these cases of an urgent surrender never materialise, and we're left wondering whatever happened to those dogs that were in such dire need of help.

Sunday's Whiskers N Paws afternoon is going to be a busy one, and by that I mean we have a lot of puppies to show off.  There are new recruits as well as those that have been before, and please remember that you can meet puppies any day of the week at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre as well as Sundays.