Sun 8th August: Clash of dates

I don’t think there are ever enough hours in the day or days in the year to fit in everything that needs to be done.  For me I have every Sunday pre-booked from now to eternity with the puppy adoption afternoons at Whiskers’n’Paws, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other issues to be dealt with at the same time.

We received a couple of old schnauzers last week.  I was originally told they were schnauzer puppies that had been left on someone’s doorstep, but when they actually arrived they had long left their doggie childhoods behind.  It would be difficult to estimate the real ages because of the condition of at least the female, and she was quickly sent to the vet where she was diagnosed with pyometra (infected uterus) as well as a host of other things which may or may not be related.  She also has heartworm.   I have to make quick decisions in cases like these, and so while I was busy talking to potential puppy adopters I was also getting Blondie (the schnauzer) moved to another clinic for surgery, as well as Rudolph, a doglet whose desex wound had become infected with screw worm.

As I’m typing this, I have about thirty minutes left to decide whether Blondie should have the surgery to remove the infected uterus (which will kill her if left but then so might the anaesthetic and surgery itself because of her poor condition), or have her euthanised.  All of this would have been avoided had the poor dog been desexed earlier on in life, but there are still many people who think that desexing is cruel.  You’d laugh if it wasn’t so serious.

2-year old Timmie urgently needs a new home

I also got the usual emails asking about taking in dogs, another expat returning to his homeland, another moving to public housing, etc etc.  There seems to be a general impression that HKDR has endless space, a bottomless pit of money, and hundreds of staff to take care of all the dogs that we are expected to take.  The truth is that while we have been blessed with our current site which is very large and does have space, it is only temporary and it’s a hundred percent certain that when we move we will have nothing like the same size of land.  The dogs, who have so much freedom now, will have to go back to living in kennels just as they did at Pokfulam, and we have to bear that in mind at all times.

Ultimately it’s the dogs that pay the price for the human mistakes and thoughtlessness, and it’s so terribly unfair.

With our new mini Homing Centre due to be opening at Ap Lei Chau soon, we are urgently in need of someone to take over as a general Site Manager at Tai Po.  This will be a paid position, and we are looking for some who is self-motivated, organised, able to deal with constant pressure and frequent emergencies, level-headed, calm and good with both dogs and people.  If you are interested, please email me at sally@hongkongdogrescue.com.

Going back to the lack of days in the year, you can be sure that whenever an event is organised, it will clash with another taking place at the same time.  August 21st is International Homeless Animal Day, and we are opening our doors to visitors at Tai Po so more people can come and see what we do, and where we do it.  We have arranged a coach to bring visitors in , and all details can be found on the website.  The clash is with the demonstration and march being organised for the same day, as mentioned on my blog recently.  We didn’t choose either of the dates, so there’s nothing we can do to change them…..