Mon 16th November: Fre-e-e-ezing!!

 

It’s supposed to be the coldest November for ten years, but I’ve been in Hong Kong since 1984 and I can’t remember it ever being this cold so early. Maybe it’s because the temperature dropped so dramatically and so quickly that everyone’s feeling the cold, and I had to dig out our lovely HKDR dog coats on Sunday to put on the shaking puppies. I hope this is just a short spell and we can return to the usual lovely November weather soon.

I wanted to make sure I took dogs out of AFCD today as I plan to be at the warehouse tomorrow helping to sort toys and stuff the Peak to Fong backpacks. All of those ready and waiting to go had been surrendered by their owners, and included the female Chung Hom Kok collie (Devon), a 2-year old cocker now called Hamish, and a 12-year old peke girl, Fizz. She looks much younger than her apparent age, and is very mobile for a senior citizen. I can’t say she was a happy dog, but who can blame her?

Once out of AFCD, Devon lost some of her previous fear and like all of the Chung Hom Kok dogs, is an incredibly sweet girl, and very pretty too. Hamish is just a typical lively cocker, the reason for him being surrendered apparently. He could be a very lucky dog as we have a nice home waiting for a young cocker. Fingers crossed.

I’m very happy that our small dogs can live inside the office when the weather is like this, but I have to admit it’s getting pretty crowded and the addition of new peke Fizz isn’t helping. At least Tilly, a senior shih tzu (also surrendered to AFCD ), went off to a foster home today. We really like the little ones to be out of kennels if at all possible so if anyone has the space and time to foster until these dogs find a home, please let Maria know at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com

We have a very active small dog team who are remarkably effective at finding homes but we need temporary care in the meantime.

Getting back to Lamma was a bit of an adventure today. There is no ferry service where I live so I have to rely on sampans, those small wooden boats that bob like corks in the water. The first sampan I took was too small and underpowered, and had to turn back because of the big swell. That meant searching for a bigger boat who was willing to make the crossing, and it was only because they all know me that I found one. Even so, it was more like a fairground than a boat ride, as the waves threw the sampan from side to side, and I was clinging on to prevent myself myself from flying. I was very grateful that I didn’t have any puppies with me because I don’t know how I would have coped.