Sat 29th June: Sunday Pet Expo closed down

Everyone was anticipating a very busy day on Sunday

I have to begin by letting everyone know that there will be no Pet Expo on Sunday as advertised, after the police informed all exhibitors today that the HKCEC will be closed due to the 1st July ceremony taking place on Monday, and the anticipated protests.   As much as I try to keep politics out of this blog, I have to say I was stunned to receive the news from our team at around four thirty in the afternoon, finding it hard to believe that such an innocuous event could so suddenly be shut down, leaving exhibitors and charities like HKDR with piles of merchandise in readiness for the biggest day of the Expo on Sunday, and so much potential revenue lost.  The Pet Expo is a big thing for us, one of the important events in the calendar for fundraising and promotion, and everything is planned months in advance.  I'm sure that there will still be many people unaware of the closure who will be turning up at the Exhibition Centre on Sunday expecting to be enjoying a day of shopping for their pets, and will instead find the doors firmly closed.

After the announcement about Sunday was made there was a mad rush to try to clear as much stock as possible, so anyone who made it to the Expo before it ended at 9pm probably had a great time picking up bargains.  Nobody will be allowed back inside until Tuesday morning to take away displays and unsold merchandise, and we do still need volunteers to help with that.  Please let Eva know if you can lend a hand at 10am on Tuesday by emailing eva@hongkongdogrescue.com, thank you.  Thanks too to all the volunteers who signed up to work at our stand and did a great job over Friday and Saturday.

Perkins and his sister Dorothy are both waiting for their forever homes

Moving on as I must, we'll be hoping for some adoptions over the weekend of course, if for no other reason than to get the dogs out of the heat and rain and into air-conditioned homes.  Beautiful older puppy Perkins left our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre today to go to a foster home, and while I was really hoping he would have been adopted by now at least he can enjoy having his own space, bed and toys in the meantime.  He's really a great character with a fantastic temperament, and very good looking too.  What more could anyone ask for?

It wasn't planned or expected, but more small dogs will be arriving at the Homing Centre in Ap Lei Chau on Sunday morning, with an additional two or three at Tai Po.  I agreed to take them because they appear to be from the same source as the previous dogs that came to us, all of whom were very sweet as well as being young and healthy.  Don't ask me where they have been living because I really have no idea, I only know that I don't want them to end up in some awful dead-end shelter, or worse.  It's a struggle to cope at the moment but we'll get through this slow period as we always do.

Michelle has been with me since she was a puppy

Ellen, our Life Saver Club volunteer, asked me to send a photo of Michelle, one of the Lamma dogs,   as an update for her sponsor.  It's always a challenge getting a photo of any of the dogs, but it was siesta time and everyone was snoozing so I managed to sneak my phone out without being noticed.  If you would like to sponsor any of our long-termers, please email lifesaver@hongkongdogrescue.com for details of the sponsor packages.

Siesta time for the dogs: Kim (front), Babs and Deli