Tues 12th July: Good news for two lucky pups

Two very lucky puppies, Fanta and Oscar

There was cause for celebration today as two puppies left for their forever home together.  One of them was Fanta, a beautiful girl who has been waiting too long since being returned from a trial adoption with best friend Trixie, who was subsequently chosen and left the Homing Centre.  Of course Fanta had other puppies to play with but we all wanted her to have a real home of her own again, and today was the day.

Fanta and Trixie had been best friends

Another puppy who had been picked for the shortlist from photos of Sunday's puppy afternoon was Oscar, a new boy whose lookalike sister wasn't at Whiskers N Paws last week because of kennel cough.  Both had previously been in homes so are well socialised and very affectionate, but living on Lamma.  It was Oscar's luck that I succeeded in finding a sampan to take him over to Ap Lei Chau as it took a while, but I managed to get him on one that was delivering the regular Tuesday dog food supply and had no reason to say no to taking a little passenger back.  That was Oscar's first and last solo boat trip as he is now Fanta's "brother" and has a wonderful life ahead of him.

Oscar at his first and last Whiskers N Paws

My happiness at the double adoption was rather muted due to the fact that one of my older dogs suddenly became very weak on his back legs, and was really struggling on the morning walk. Hilton had had a lump removed from his skin about a year ago, maybe even more than a year, and at the time it was diagnosed as an aggressive cancer and I was warned it could be a secondary growth.  However the wound healed and Hilton was absolutely fine and showed no signs whatsoever of being ill.  Just recently I noticed that in the evening when all of the dogs were inside and lying down to sleep, Hilton was coughing.  It wasn't bad and he didn't seem to be distressed, but it crossed my mind at that point that there could be a problem with his lungs, and maybe serious.

Hilton

Hilton had been totally fine on the walks up until today when his legs were buckling underneath him and he was even having trouble lifting his back paws off the ground.  I will have to get him to a vet for confirmation, but I can see it's not tick fever that's causing the weakness, nor any injury.  I have no idea how long Hilton has been hiding his ill health from me, just the same as all of the other dogs who literally died on the walking trail. Such is a dog's inherent loyalty and strength of character, and I see it every day too in Bali, whose back legs are also gradually losing all mobility, and Cindy, who is still going for walks long after she should have retired.

I've thought about whether I should be making these dogs stay behind when I leave the house for the long morning trek, and I even tried with Ginny when she was very weak with tick fever, but they are all so determined that they will never give up until the day they die. Maybe now in Hilton's case he will have no choice as his legs will no longer carry him, and if that's the case then I know the end is near.

With so many dogs that I have had with me since the very start of HKDR (2003) it's inevitable that one by one they are starting to die.  For some it has been sudden and unexpected, while with others it's a slow decline.  This is by far the hardest part of loving dogs, and I can only thank them for their years of devotion and hope that at the end there is no suffering.