Weds 8th June: Throwaway lives

As so often happens my "day off" turned into something far from it, with an early morning message from Kathy telling me that AFCD Kowloon had called to say someone had surrendered a dog that had been adopted from HKDR.  The microchip, which is implanted into every puppy we take from AFCD regardless of age, revealed that the dog was originally called Suzie when she was adopted at the end of last year as an eight week-old baby, and of course we knew exactly who had taken her home.

As the day progressed it turned out that another organisation had been approached by the now ex-owner of Suzie after he had been made redundant and needed to return to the USA with his family. As anyone who is employed on a contract as an expatriate in any country knows, this can - and does - happen at any time, especially in times of economic uncertainty.   Over the years I've seen hundreds of jobs suddenly lost and families having to leave at the drop of a hat, and for many the family includes a pet.   I can appreciate how hard it is when this happens and the stress involved,  but to surrender a dog to AFCD as a way of dealing with the problem is not acceptable.

Suzie at Ap Lei Chau

For Suzie, the first thing to do was to get her out of AFCD and luckily driver Michael was able to go straight away to collect her and bring her to Ap Lei Chau.  Of course that still left us with the issue of what to do next, as I really didn't want her to go to Tai Po but there was no space for her at the small Homing Centre.  I quickly posted the story on Facebook, using a photograph of Suzie as a puppy as that was all I had at the time, in the hope that someone would be able to foster her at least temporarily.  With Thursday being a holiday it was even more urgent that usual, and to cut the story short Suzie ended up being sent to Lamma after my neighbours had very kindly offered to take her in. They also have a very happy and friendly ex-HKDR puppy about the same age as Suzie, although double the size, so it was rightly assumed the two of them would be fine together.

Suzie was incredibly lucky to have been invited to stay with Benji

Barney now, and still very cute

For Suzie the immediate crisis is over for now but she's not the only ex-HKDR puppy who is in need of a new home.  There is also Barney, still with his family at the moment but being evicted because he has chewed some furniture.   There's Bouncer too, adopted as a baby and now not wanted any more because he grew too big and there's a human baby in the family that has taken his place.  None of these dogs has been accused of doing anything wrong except being there when they are no longer cute and small.  If you can't promise a home for life then don't adopt, it's as simple as that.

How bitterly I regret Barney's adoption now