Mondays are always frantic because of the follow-on enquiries from the weekend, as well as the new questionnaires that need to be read, assessed and replied to. In addition I had a Lamma dog that had to go to Acorn in the morning after one of her eyes was looking a bit strange (it had to be removed), and then there was the totally unexpected death of another very sweet Lamma dog, Solo. I'd noticed the previous day or so that she had lost some weight, so I gave her extra food and assumed she was being pushed out of the way by bigger, or more greedy, dogs. This morning I saw that her sides were heaving with the effort of breathing and I knew immediately what that meant, so I spent some time with her and she responded in her shy but very sweet way. By the time I got back from my walk with the other dogs Solo was dead. I actually never called her Solo because of the high-pitched and excited squealing sound she made when I went up the stairs in the morning to open the door to the roof, so to me she was always Squeeeezy. Dogs are incredibly brave and will hide their illness for as long as they can, and in the case of Solo that was really up until the very end.
At the same time as all of this was happening I was also responding to a Facebook message about someone wanting to find a new home for her over-exuberant golden retriever, and knowing that there were many potential adopters waiting for such a dog I immediately said yes to taking him in. Before you ask about him he does already have a very suitable home to go to, and one of those also offering a home took the border collie instead, the one I wrote about yesterday. He had also had to have desexing surgery today due to the fact that one testicle was enlarged, so that's always a reason not to delay neutering.
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| Phaedra is young and pretty, but she needs a special home |
It's always going to be the case that there is much more interest in purebreeds than the mixed-breed dogs, and that's a great shame. However any dog in need of a home is equal in our eyes so we're happy whatever type it is, but there are some purebreeds that are still waiting no matter how many enquiries and meetings there have been. One of those is Phaedra, the cocker spaniel, a very popular girl as far as potential adopters are concerned, but it never gets past the interview stage. I always warn people that Phaedra will bark at them, which she does without fail, but she eventually stops, and she has never bitten anyone. At the Homing Centre where she feels settled and knows the other dogs she lives with, she's not a problem at all, but she definitely doesn't like strangers. This is really a case of a dog's bark being worse than its bite (as the saying goes), but at the same time it would be difficult to have Phaedra in a home where there were a lot of people around that she would meet when going out. We really do need a home that's got its own garden and not in a busy area.
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| Donny the shiba inu (older) puppy |
Another very popular breed that also needs a special kind of home is Donny the shiba inu (older) puppy. He's not a bad boy at all, he's just what I'd call typical of the breed and he needs to be appreciated for what he is. These dogs are very smart and that can make them challenging.
For all adoption enquiries please complete the questionnaire at www.hongkongdogrescue.com/adopt/adoptionquestionnaire/
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