Thurs 25th Aug: Mixed breeds are the best

Marsha's sad AFCD mugshot

I was at Acorn again today with Murphy having his eye checked (more of that later) and as happens almost every time I'm at the vet I met one of our Tai Po dogs, in this case Marsha.  Of course I know the dogs that have come from AFCD in Pokfulam because I will have seen them at the kennels and taken them out myself, but may never have met those that came from AFCD in Sheung Shui so it's a great opportunity to see them in person.  Marsha is a beautiful girl and so sweet, and she was all over Jamie (our volunteer Events and Projects Manager) who happened to be there with her own dog. Once again I find it so sad that so many truly gorgeous (in every way) dogs are passed over simply because they don't have a breed name attached.  Look at these two updates received today, both about lovely mixes, Anna and Chance:

I always knew Anna was special

"We adopted Anna about a year ago. At that time, she was a little over eight months old and the last of her litter. We took her home and within a week, we can’t imagine our lives without Anna.

Anna is brave and very strong.  She was born with cloudy blue eyes but she can see very well and we monitor this condition regularly.  She loves to run and can jump over very high barriers.  She loves going to the park and meeting her doggy friends there every morning. She also likes greeting her many human friends and strangers in the park.  She has an obsession with water and her life would be perfect if we were to live near a little stream or a dog beach.

Although she had two failed adoptions prior, she turned out to be the gentlest and most loving dog I’ve ever had.  She behaves impeccably when my daughter has friends over for playdates. 

She’s great with both people and dogs.  Given a chance, she’ll like to give everyone kisses, many many times a day.  She has a tendency of giving kisses to lone folks sitting on benches in the park (usually older men).  We try to stop her her doing this because she is not a small dog and may alarm some people but they always laughed and petted her.  I guess Anna has a sixth sense about who needs kisses in the park!

Thank you so much, Sally and HKDR for giving us Anna.  She is truly an awesome family member.  We love our big-hearted dog to bits".

Chance is living the Canadian dream

"Just wanted to let you know all is well with Chance. He is a great family dog as we had hoped. He warmly greets all of us and has become very playful as he's settling in. All three of our kids are very fond of him, each taking on walking, feeding and training.

He is very curious and brave about his new surroundings. He happily goes in the lake and seems like he may learn to swim. He figured out our carpeted stairs in no time, loves his bed, and still uses his crate as a place to rest. His loves his blanket that you sent with him, tossing it up over his head, and plays with the stuffie that my daughter gave him (but has easily learned to leave the kids toys alone).

He did great on a recent family camping trip, although he didn't like the flies and hid out in his crate at times!

All in all, he has been a great addition to the family filling a void we have all had. His spirit and calm demeanour remind us a lot of our previous Shepherd-Sharpei cross.  My 8 yr old daughter said she finally feels like she is whole again as she's never lived without a dog until this year."

Murphy can't hear that I'm calling him

As for Murphy, the good news is that his eye is a little bit better although he still seems to be blind at the moment, and the bad news is that he was confirmed as being totally deaf.  Dr Andy asked the vet nurse to bring the "expensive and sophisticated hearing test equipment", a metal bowl and a pair of metal scissors banged loudly together right by Murphy's ears.  When he didn't even twitch it was very clear that he hears absolutely nothing at all, so all the fuss about thunderstorms is nothing to do with the noise rather the change in atmospheric pressure, and all of the conversations I've had over the past years (?) were wasted on him.  It's quite common for pet owners to have no idea their dog has become blind or deaf, and it was only when Murphy lost his sight that I became aware that he was completely oblivious to everything, including me, unless I actually touched him.