Sat 23rd Feb: Desexing is not a choice

Thanks to Harryn for photos of our current Ap Lei Chau dogs, now minus Radar

Although I refer to Wednesdays and Saturdays as my days off, in reality they are still working days, it's just that I stay at home rather than go across to Ap Lei Chau and beyond.  I'm kept informed throughout the day about potential adoptions and who's visiting the Homing Centres, and about other random and often difficult situations such as occurred today.

A dog that had recently been adopted soon after coming to us from AFCD was taken for desexing as had been promised by the new owner, but was found by the vet to be pregnant so he refused to continue with the spay.  The pregnancy was in its early stages, and unfortunately many of the females that are picked up as strays are already in the family way by the time they end up at AFCD, and subsequently with HKDR.  Unless in an advanced stage it's almost impossible to detect, and we would desex anyway to prevent the poor dog from having an unwanted litter.   The only reason this dog hadn't been spayed by HKDR was that she was chosen very quickly after arriving and was on a waiting list for a surgery slot.  The adopter understood the importance of getting the desexing done as soon as possible, but things didn't go as planned and it ended up with an angry exchange of words between me and the vet, someone I had never heard of in a Tai Po clinic that was also unknown to me.  Now the dog will have to go to another vet in a different clinic, one that understands the reality of the number of dogs and puppies that end up being killed for lack of homes.

There is also an obligation on our part to desex all dogs taken from AFCD, and also on any adopter's part to do likewise if it's a puppy and too young for spay or neuter at the time.  It doesn't matter if the puppy came from AFCD or not, this isn't negotiable or a choice, this is absolutely necessary to prevent the production of more unwanted puppies.   A female can come into season as early as five months of age and can be giving birth to her first litter well before she's an adult herself, so we set the spay age at six months.  For males it's older because at least they can't actually have puppies themselves even if they can become fathers,  and we recommend neutering at eight months.  It might seem unfair but life isn't fair, and nor is nature.

Poodle Radar (see above) was taken for a trial (with the resident cat) today, a day after his desexing surgery at the age of eight years.   He was surrendered to us when his owner, living in Public Housing, was given an eviction notice for the dog.  Dogs aren't allowed in Public Housing and many private residential estates too,  and it doesn't matter that "everyone else" has a dog, if they're not allowed then there is always the chance that action will be taken.  That's why we are strict about not homing to any "No Pets" homes, even if we don't agree with the Government policy.

It's time these kiddies moved on to their forever homes

Sunday is of course Whiskers N Paws afternoon, and it will be a big day for our younger puppies who are finally ready to go to new homes.   The remaining "Kitten" pups will also be making their first appearance now that they have had their second round of vaccinations, and they really are still tiny.  The weather isn't ideal for games on the terrace, at least at the moment, but it doesn't matter as we can stay warm and dry inside the store if need be.

Konrad made a very generous birthday donation to HKDR

Sundays is also usually the day for photos of the Twopresents donations, but not all are able to make it but would still like to share their birthday photos like Konrad, who chose to share his founrth birthday with the dogs and puppies of HKDR.  Thank you Konrad!  For details for how this works please visit the website www.twopresents.com or the Facebook page.