Tues 19th April: Another exciting day at AFCD

These 3 puppies are currently staying at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre

I was back at AFCD in Pokfulam today to take out a five month-old fluffy black puppy I'd seen last week. Some dogs and puppies are very easy, being happy, confident and more than willing to walk straight out of their kennels, but others need to be persuaded that nothing bad is about to happen. This particular puppy was very scared, but her body language and other signals were telling me that she would be fine once she felt safe, even though she was growling.  Sure enough, after I'd inched myself closer to her (sideways on) and slowly reached my hand out, she turned her head away to let me touch, and then pick her up to carry her out.  The microchipping part of the process can be daunting for a nervous dog or puppy, being approached from behind by a man or woman with a strange "thing" in their hands which is then stabbed into the back of the neck, but once the poop was cleaned up we were on our way.  Camilla is now at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre and I will have to wait to hear how she's coping with the other dogs and puppies there.  I'm sure Magic, Marina and Albert will be able to assure her that it's OK and that nobody is going to hurt her.

Nessa as a young adult at Whiskers N Paws

I had two more of my Lamma dogs with me to have their rabies vaccination and licenses renewed, and it's always interesting to see how they cope with being away from home and around cars, strange people and so on.  Of course with me they are just normal dogs, happy, friendly and relaxed, but they have little or no experience of the outside world. Today it was the turn of Nessa and Harry, both big dogs who were "failed" puppies three years ago, meaning that they had attended the weekly Whiskers N Paws puppy Sundays but had never been chosen.  They are both sweet-natured and love attention and cuddles, but while Nessa was remarkably calm and took the whole experience in her stride, Harry was beside himself with fear.  The moment the back of the van was opened he shot out and disappeared, running for his life (so he thought) round and through the  kennel blocks and desperately looking for a way out.  If there had been the slightest possibility of him being able to squeeze through a two-inch gap in the fence he would have taken it, but luckily  I was able to grab the trailing leash before he did himself any damage.