Sun 5th June: Dragon Boat racing

Penny and Domino 

It was Dragon Boat racing in the bay where I live, the only day of the year when the temple area is filled with people and the normally sleepy village comes alive with the sound of drums and Lion Dances.  The festival normally takes place on a weekday and I'm not sure how the dates are arranged, but today every sampan in Aberdeen was busy ferrying supporters over to cheer on their team, which meant there wasn't a single boat available to take me and the puppies.  Luckily my speedboat-owning friend was in Hong Kong and free to ferry me across the Lamma Channel, but that meant reducing puppy and crate numbers to the absolute minimum as they needed to be carried to the neighbouring pontoon, about ten minutes walk away (and including a very long flight of steps).

Nero, Penny and Cherry

So I had to leave behind the newest youngsters and ended up with just five: brothers Sooty and Nero, sisters Domino and Cherry, and best friend Penny.  They are all very sweet characters, but the two black boys from Stanley Barracks are just heart-melting.  In fact, coming back at the end of the afternoon when I was carrying Nero home and we passed through a neighbour's garden where there was a small party going on, I ended up leaving him there for fostering until next Sunday.

Two of our tiny babies were returned from one foster home and immediately taken by another, this time for adoption (the boy, Romeo) and fostering for Lucy.  If anyone is interested in more of this litter we have others in foster but they are too young to be separated at this point.

Romeo (left) is adopted while Lucy is being fostered

Here's a link to this week's full puppy album:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1208622389150491.1073742189.111369775542430&type=1&l=c6c94dcdbd

We're not having much luck with adoptions at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre, which used to see a constant turnover of small dogs coming in and going out.  It's not that we aren't getting adoption enquiries because there are many, but almost everyone is asking for puppies.  It's true that from time to time we do have small breed puppies but in general the point of adopting from a rescue organisation is that it means giving a home to a dog that has already been bought from a pet shop, often passed around several times and has ended up being abandoned.  I don't know where all these litters of baby poodles or French bulldogs and so on are supposed to be coming from, but we don't have a back room where we are busy breeding them.  We have plenty of puppies of course, but they don't come with a size guarantee or a breed label.