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| Katie |
I'm going to start with the good news and updates on the new dogs because it wasn't the best day all round, with sad news about a foster dog that had been injured after being hit by a car, and too many adopted dogs being returned.
Back to the happy news, following the adoption on Sunday of her long-time friend Kai, it was Katie's turn today and she left our Kennedy Town Centre for a short trial before her adoption is formally confirmed. Kai and Katie came to us when we were still using out Elgin Street Centre to house the new arrivals, so it's been a long time coming but lovely that the two dogs left within a couple of days of each other.
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| Dana |
Dana the poodle also had her adoption confirmed by her very caring foster parent. Dana came to us with one back leg being completely unusable, and we thought that amputation would be the only option. Happily it seems that there's a good chance the leg can be saved, but regardless of any outcome Dana has a home for life.
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| Adam |
I mentioned one of the new doglets, Adam, who had arrived with a broken and infected leg which needed immediate treatment. Luckily, although the break had been previously (badly) fixed and the pins that were still inside had become infected, Dr Tony felt that by removing the pins and giving intense physiotherapy to build up the muscle, Adam should recover without further surgery. So now we need a foster home for this lovely young boy, one where he can get lots of appropriate exercise, massages and tummy rubs (those are just extras).
All of the other new arrivals went to Acorn today to have their health checks, and as suspected the shiba-corgi pups almost certainly have scabies, and there was the usual variety of wobbly knees and so on that will need seeing to.
Sometimes I really feel as though people treat adoption of animals as a kind of lending service, a trial, or a temporary distraction for the kids. Occasionally there's a genuine reason for a dog needing to be re-homed, but more often than not it's a case of the dog becoming an inconvenience, or the result of an impulse adoption.
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| Adopted as a baby pup and never trained |
The worst of all are when a young puppy is adopted, not properly trained, and then handed back as an adult with comments about bad behaviour. We had one of those today and all of us are furious, especially because all HKDR adopters are offered free training advice from our very experienced and qualified trainer, yet many choose to ignore this opportunity. I have no idea why this should be, but for whatever reason many returned dogs have never seen a trainer or have been unsuccessfully "trained" by others using a variety of methods, some of which involve harsh tools such as choke chains, prong collars and electric shocks.
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| Rex and Nova in their new foster home |
At least this hadn't happened to the two small dogs that we took back today, and literally at the very last moment had an offer of a lovely foster home. In fact Rex and Nova had already been brought to our Kennedy Town Centre by the helper when I received the email, so we were able to pack up a foster kit for the two dogs and send them back out again to Discovery Bay where they're now staying. This case in itself was incredibly stressful, because while we were doing our best to try to find a new place for Rex and Nova, the owner was talking about having the two dogs put to sleep if we didn't take them immediately. I actually doubt that most vets would agree to killing two young and lovely little dogs, but it was a horrible threat nonetheless. You can imagine my relief on finding a happy solution at the very last minute.
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| A cropped adoption photo of a cropped adoption |
Another small-medium adopted dog, Ella, is also being returned (again, nothing to do with her behaviour), and she's actually due to have patella surgery at Acorn on Thursday. This means we will need a foster home for her where she can recover, so please fill in the foster form is you can help. It's at www.hongkongdogrescue.com/volunteer/fostering/
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