Weds 15th June: Half year report

Life Saver Club-sponsored Phaedra is staying on Lamma

 It's funny that quite by chance I mentioned the Life Saver Club yesterday, because I was reminded today that we're halfway through the year and that means it's time for a update for the Life Saver Club sponsors. For the top tier donors this also means receiving photos of their sponsored dog, some of whom are Lamma residents.  I've talked about the challenges of taking individual photos of the puppies at Whiskers N Paws on Sundays, because I really know how difficult it is when there's a group of dogs and you're trying to focus on just one.  Suddenly everyone becomes interested in what's going on, and you end up with unwanted heads and tails in every shot.  Some dogs love having their photos taken, while others hide as soon as they see me approach with my phone, so maybe I should only suggest the easy ones as future Life Saver Club dogs. 

I was asked today if we'd accept a dog from AFCD, and it's such a sad case that of course I said yes.  This Maltese girl is almost fourteen years old and was surrendered by her now ex-owners, and I really can't think of anything worse than abandoning an old dog like this.  I don't know if there will be any offers of a new end-of-life home, but I really hope so. 

We get so many surrender requests every day, many of them for senior dogs who are being left behind when their families leave Hong Kong. If you're considering doing this please remember that there are already hundreds of dogs at HKDR,  most of them perfectly adoptable, so any new dog has to join the queue for a home.  This is never simply a case of handing a dog over and the next day it leaves to join a new family.  The trauma and distress that the dog goes through can never be overstated, because there's no way that they can understand what has happened and why their whole life has been torn away from them.  The people who hand their dog over can walk away and never have to deal with the after-effects of their actions, which is a great shame.  Instead it's the staff and volunteers who see and feel the heartbreak of a scared and bewildered dog,  left without the comforts of a home, or the security of having their own family.  

At least there's almost always at least one piece of good news to balance the sad, and today it was that puppy Orlando will be going home on Thursday.  He was picked from the many Kennedy Town puppies currently waiting, and you can meet them all any day of the week between 10am and 6pm.