Tues 18th Oct: A personal note

Soko is 10 months old

The shiba inu I wrote about yesterday arrived first thing in the morning, and we're going to allocate him the age as ten months, as assessed by the vet who checked him over.  His name is now Soko, and he's available for adoption as soon as we get him microchipped and licensed.

I was going to mention a surrender request for another popular small breed, but it seems the owner has changed his mind, as often happens. One who did arrive as arranged was Wally the poodle, and he had to go straight to hospital to be treated for tick fever, which had got to a life-threatening stage.  I'm happy to say that Wally's condition improved day by day, and he was picked up from Concordia Pet Care today by his potential adopter.

Sweet Sandy has a home

 

Following what has been a very dry adoption spell for our larger adult dogs, it's always good to be able to write about some of them finding homes.  Sandy is one of the lucky dogs who has found her forever home, and malamute Big Al (also known as Roody) is the other. Both have been in foster homes, so they move in with their new families with known behaviour and habits, just one of the reason why fosters are so important. 

Big Al, or Roody, with his adopter

I rarely write about my personal life, and I stopped using Facebook a long time ago for anything other than HKDR-related stuff, but there are times when something big happens and I can't just pretend that everything is OK.  I posted my blog as usual yesterday but I had just learned that my sister had died, and I have to admit I was still in shock at the suddenness of the news, coming only a few hours after I had been chatting to her on the phone.  My other sister also died earlier this year so this loss has been hard, and I was grateful for the bad weather that prevented me anyway from having to go over to Hong Kong as I has been planning to do. 

I'm writing about this now because I think it's important to remind everyone that all of us who work in dog rescue are also humans with lives and families outside of the dog world, even if for me my circumstances might give the impression that there's nothing but dogs, dogs and more dogs.  For the most part people are understanding, but there are those who are incredibly demanding and rude, even abusive, and I know this affects not only me, but all of us who are just doing our best.  This work is challenging and emotional, and even if I'm not actually friends with everyone running dog rescue charities, and the many volunteers, I can at least acknowledge that we all face the same frustrations, highs and lows, and sometimes utter despair.