Thurs 8th Sept: Last minute decisions

Oliver on the sampan after his hospitalisation

 It felt like a momentous day today with deadlines for all sorts of things, and for me a particularly stressful morning as I had to make a big decision about my Lamma dog Oliver.  This particular situation was a now-or-never one because our driver, Ming, is taking some time off for Mid-Autumn Festival and other holidays due, and I had to decide if I was going to send Oliver to have a feeding tube inserted due to the fact that it's been well over a week since he last ate anything.  This once-greedy boy who was always on the lookout for food now turns his head away from even the tastiest morsel offered, and trying to syringe feed liquid food means a fight as Oliver struggles to get away and refuses to swallow.  Ming had a list of other places he needed to get to today, so the window of opportunity for Oliver was small.  In the end I decided to let nature take its course, and while still doing whatever I can for him  at home I didn't want to put Oliver through the additional stress of the boat and van ride, plus everything else that would be necessary to get the feeding tube put in.   I should add that Oliver is a big dog at almost forty kilos, so it's no small matter getting him on and off a sampan, and into and out of a van. 

Our Kennedy Town Homing Centre Manager, Iris, is also taking some well overdue leave, and with such a small team of staff of course there's a big hole left whenever one is missing, or as is now the case, two people.   Looking after dogs means that we can never take days off at the same time, so Public Holidays and typhoons are the same as every other day in terms of having to be at the Homing Centres to make sure the dogs are fed and walked, and hopefully adopted.

Archie (l) and Alexi

As I wrote yesterday, I had to make the difficult decision to separate siblings  Archie and Alexi, and Archie was immediately adopted.  I'm always happy about adoptions, as I'm sure you know, but in this case I was actually quite sad, and I'm still wondering if I made the right choice.

Sweet Abby and her new family

Abby was also adopted, and she has two big sisters to take care of her in her new home.  In fact she may have another "brother" joining her soon, but that's a story for another day.

I'm really happy for Pippa

Adoptions that always make me happy are those that take place at our Tai Po Homing Centre, and today's wonderful news was that kind-of-rottweiler Pippa found her new family.  

For those who have been asking about the dogs currently staying at our HKDR@Elgin space in Soho, they will be moving to our Kennedy Town North Street Centre on Friday afternoon.  Hopefully their stay there will be short and they'll be leaving for their new forever homes very soon.  The weekend is coming and we've had quite a few enquiries about the three smaller ones, Avery, Aggie and Anya, while Alexi may also have a temporary home to go to elsewhere.