Tuesday 22nd September: Pet shop rejects

It was back to business as usual today, and my dreaded trip to AFCD to check out the newcomers.  At least the choice was  easy as there were two Westie puppies (Asha and Pasha) and a long haired dachshund puppy (Maxie), who had been surrendered together with what should have been a husky (and would have been sold at a pet shop as one), but was obviously a mix. These pups had all been bought but later returned to the pet shop (I don’t know the reason), and the pet shop had handed them to AFCD. Maybe at 5 months the puppies were too old to sell. At least for us they will be easy to re-home, except maybe the husky cross (Himalaya) who although very sweet and pretty, is still a large and hairy dog.

I also reserved a young pug who’s not available for re-homing yet, and a sheltie cross who has an interesting set of teeth, like Chiclets in a row.

I met up with Okka Scherer (formerly of PALS) at AFCD where she was collecting boxes of microchips on behalf of Dr Joe Laraya. Okka and Dr Joe are part of the ABC (animal birth control) programme set up and run by Jane Wong, and two nights a week they go out an about in deepest New Territories to desex (for free) as many of the local dogs as possible. (I posted the impressive numbers recently on this blog). I know Dr Joe from the early days of HKDR when he was one of the vets at the Aberdeen vet clinic we used to use back then, and he’s an excellent surgeon. He’s now become a dedicated animal welfare vet with a heart of gold. His clinic on Lantau is always full of all sorts of waifs and strays, many of them brought in with shocking injuries and mutilations, but Joe is someone who will always give every animal a chance.

The puppies I took today from AFCD weren’t the only pet shop rejects.  Sheila of LAP told me about nine baby small breed pups that were found the other day in a rubbish bin, six of whom had already died and the remaining three were struggling to survive (in fact I think another one may also have since succombed to distemper).  These were chihuahuas, pugs and the like, tossed out like garbage when they became ill.  This is the pet trade, where a puppy is no more than a commodity. 

Dana, on the other hand,  is now a Whiskers’n’Paws foster dog after having been taken there today. I’m sure she’ll enjoy her frequent shopping forays, and she’s so smart I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll be pushing a trolley round the store within a couple of days.