Mon 25th July: The MTR is coming to Ap Lei Chau

I can't wait to get that cone off Murphy

It's only been a week since Murphy lost his eye in what I believe to have been simply an accident rather than an intentional attack, but it seems much longer than that.  The stitches in his sewn-up empty eye socket are driving him crazy, and me with it.  All I can hear every night is the sound of scratching on the plastic cone and Murphy moaning, crying, sighing and generally making it very clear that he can't sleep.  So since he was due a rabies vaccination anyway, I took him with me today to see if there was a chance that his stitches could be taken out early and give us both some respite and sleep.

From the first day that I saw Murphy at AFCD (now eleven years ago) he decided that I was his human and that nothing would separate us. He became my shadow and it was inevitable that one day I would bring him home, which of course I did.  When I take him out with me he has to be with me wherever I go and whatever I do, and while it's no problem to have him sitting next to me in the van, I can't do anything else without Murphy tagging along.

He was at my side while I was at AFCD and saw a pet shop employee bringing in the crates stuffed with tiny baby poodles and French bulldogs to be microchipped, and if looks could kill that girl would have dropped dead on the spot.  To see these puppies and know that they would be sold off to anyone who could produce the cash regardless of their ability to take care of a dog, and that many of them would end up being kept in cages and alone all day really upset me.  These puppies are helpless victims whose mothers almost certainly live the saddest of lives, if it can be called living at all. I just wanted to get away from that place and the sight of those puppies as fast as I could, so as soon as I had Murphy's new license in my hand I was in the van and off to Acorn.

Dr Hazel didn't want to take the eye stitches out so soon, which I really know would be the case, but she did clean up the wound and remove all the little scabs that had formed, telling me that might help with the itching (sadly it didn't).  So Thursday is the big day, and I can't wait.

The Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre is just 3 stops from Admiralty

I have mixed feelings about  another upcoming event, and that is the opening of the new MTR stations which will include one very close to our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre (the station is called Lei Tung). It's inevitable that the arrival of the MTR will change the small island of Ap Lei Chau dramatically, and we are already seeing that in Main Street where a new, upmarket residential building is halfway through construction.  Rents will rise and the character of the area will undoubtedly be lost before too long, just as the MTR has changed other places like Kennedy Town. On the flip side, it will be very easy for staff, adopters and volunteers to get to our Homing Centre, so we will have to take the good with the bad.