Tues 14th Aug: A microchip is for life

These pups are some of the lucky ones

I was all set to go to an early meeting before seeing that the T3 signal was up, so that put an end to all my plans for the day as it meant having to stay at home.  Apart from the meeting, there were also four older puppies to be taken out of AFCD, so it was our driver, Ming, who was left to pick them up and get them to Acorn.  Being around four months the pups were sent to Tai Po to begin the next stage of their life's journey, which began somewhere on Lamma where the lack of any Trap, Neuter and Return programme means there are always unwanted puppies being born.  I don't have much hope that TNR will ever be officially approved and carried out, and have accepted that it will continue to be volunteers who are left to do this important work.

We didn't expect any of our adopted dogs to end up like this

Once again a microchip gave away the dirty secret of the couple who went back to Australia last year leaving their golden retriever with the helper, who was of course unable to take care of a dog.  It turned out that this was an ex-HKDR dog, adopted from Tai Po in 2012 and now back with us at the Homing Centre.  An email to the couple asking if they had any explanation is still waiting for a reply, and I assume they will be making all sorts of excuses to themselves for their appalling behaviour, none of which will be acceptable.  Yes there are blood tests and restrictions on taking dogs to some countries like Australia and New Zealand, but if there had been any such problem then we could have stepped in and helped.  There is never any excuse for just dumping a family pet, never.

I like to think that the dogs who end up at HKDR are the lucky ones, but obviously there are exceptions, such as the golden retriever just mentioned.  We try our best to make sure that adopters really are what they claim to be, that is committed to the dog's whole life and to taking care of it until the end.  We see and hear some terrible stories about dogs and puppies and what has happened to them, and today we took in one such example.

At the end of the afternoon Iris got a message asking if we would accept a white pom puppy, still a baby at around three months.  It had been bought from a pet shop, and like so many small breeds it had a luxating patella (kneecap).  In all cases any corrective surgery on a puppy that has suspected knee or hip problems should be delayed until the puppy has stopped growing because some things sort themselves out naturally anyway, but carrying out surgery on growing bones can have a devastating effect.  We will never know which vet, amateur or professional (in which case shame on that person) attempted patella surgery on such a tiny pup, but the results are so terrible that I can't show photos as they are very upsetting.  We rushed the puppy to Acorn, but the leg was already green and full of pus, not to mention the puppy being in terrible pain with a bone sticking out, so Dr Tony will operate on Wednesday to see what can be done.