Thurs 15th Sept: Breeder rejects continued

When I say every day brings unexpected news and surprises, good and bad, it was never truer than today.

Xavier is a year old

I got a message in the morning saying the breeder-reject German shepherd was already on his way to Tai Po when we hadn't even been sure which day he would be arriving, so I had to hastily let the Homing Centre crew know.  The dog is lovely, very sweet and beautiful, and with the expected "failed" ears which flop rather than stand up. His name is now Xavier, and I have just heard that yet another German shepherd will be coming from the same (horrible) breeder. 

Around the same time I saw a message on our Hong Kong Dog Rescue Facebook page showing an old golden retriever in very poor condition living in a dirty old box on a roof, and with large maggot holes in his legs.  Again I sent the photos to Tai Po alerting them to the dog and the facts, and of course everyone agreed to take the poor animal in.  There was a hiccup when the owners decided they "still had feelings" for the dog and were suddenly reluctant to let him go, but we are now expecting him on Friday.  I won't post the full story until we actually have the dog in our care, but this is an extremely sad case, made even more so by the fact that there are many dogs living lives like this, stuck on a roof with no company or joy at all.  This is not living, this is existing, and no roof should be considered an appropriate place for an animal to be kept.

Is this "living"?

Gertie minus cone for the photo

I took Gertie, the breeder-reject sharpei, to AFCD to register myself as the legal temporary keeper, and found out that she's four years old, not two as I had originally been told.  It doesn't really matter except that two years can be considered a young dog while four is a mature adult.  Poor Gertie hates the cone she has to wear to stop her from scratching her eyes while the stitches are still in, and I can't say I blame any dog for feeling that way.  It must be awful having to deal with a giant plastic "box" stuck on your head.

It seems we're seeing a lot of breeder cases right now, and apart from the tiny teacup poodle boy who is almost certainly going to need amputation of his dislocated front leg, there is another poodle puppy who needs help.  I got this boy from AFCD a couple of weeks ago and he went straight into a home, but not before having a seizure right at the moment of handover.  Despite this the adoption went ahead, but instead of the episode being a stress-induced one-off as we had optimistically hoped, it turned out that the seizures were happening on a regular basis.  We weren't able to get any vet notes because the puppy was taken to another clinic, but I did send the details to Drs Tony and Andy at Acorn for their opinion as to possible causes and treatment options, if treatment was an option at all. The adopter's vet had recommended euthanasia, so as a last chance I asked to take the puppy back and get him seen by vets I know and trust, and that happened today.

Udon needs a foster 

Udon did seem to be perkier than I'd expected after having been told that he was dull and fairly unresponsive, and as he sat on my lap for the drive back to the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre he was looking around and licking my hand. We have medication for him but I really want to see how he is in terms of frequency and duration of the seizures before starting him on any tranquilisers.  We didn't see any seizures between the time he was dropped off in the morning and closing time at the Homing Centre so we are looking for a foster home where Udon can be properly observed and any seizures noted and timed.  Some potential fosters have been asking questions we simply can't answer, so if you can help little Udon without needing to know what we can't tell you please let Cindy know at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com