Rescuing and rehoming abandoned dogs in Hong Kong

I'm going to start with one good news story because there aren't too many of those these days, and it's that older puppy Juliet was adopted from our Tai Po Homing Centre (currently our only Homing Centre). We're waiting for a family photo from her adopters to share as the official adoption photo, so in the meantime I'll use what I've got. There should be another dog leaving on Monday, but I won't mention the name until he's actually left. Things change at the last minute so we can't assume anything's confirmed until it happens.

For potential adopters looking for smaller dogs, we do have some available but the younger ones are quite shy and really need to be in a home where's there's another dog. Tanner and Thomas are two who are currently in a foster home together, while Tessa is another small girl who came to us in the same group. She's shown here with beagle MJ, who isn't at all shy but he's eleven years old (although still active and playful).

River is a very shy girl, and she's now at the Lamma Home for Small dogs where she and Rumble (not a shy dog) have become great friends and playmates. It's wonderful to watch them rolling around and having the best time (see the video), so a home for them together would be perfect.
Unfortunately shy dogs aren't suitable to be adopted by families with children, or by anyone living in a busy or built-up area, and this is why these lovely smaller-sized young dogs are still with us.

We've come to the point now of having to say no to taking any new puppies, and "please wait" when asked if we can accept more large adult dogs. We have accepted several from AFCD in the past week, and one senior husky called Bailey, and we just don't have the manpower to be able to take on any more at the moment.
This is really proving to be a very difficult period in HKDR's history, with so many core members of our HKDR team having to stay home and isolate, leaving us short of staff and volunteers at our very large Tai Po Homing Centre (with the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre now permanently gone).

There's no way that we can just close the doors at Tai Po and let everyone work from home because the dogs are there, and nothing will change the fact that they need looking after. It didn’t help when one of our two remaining cleaners sprained her ankle this morning leaving us with just one cleaner.
We are urgently in need of volunteer manpower. If you are a registered dog walking volunteer, please try to take up extra shifts on weekdays (especially morning shifts). The dogs need their daily walks anyway and it’s just physically impossible for the staff on duty to walk them all.
If you are not a registered volunteer, please come to help with kennel cleaning on a weekday (either from 10am to 12pm or 3pm to 5pm). Please email eva@hongkongdogrescue.com to schedule a shift.
If you aren’t able to physically come by to help - please consider making a donation to HKDR. The situation in HK now not only hurts us in terms of manpower, but also financially.
Dogs will ALWAYS BE OUR PRIORITY and we really don’t want to face the extremely difficult choice of having to say no to a dog in need due to financial pressure. We still have new dogs coming in almost every day so that part of our work has never stopped, and we never intend to stop because this is what HKDR is here for. However, we can only continue with your support, especially in challenging times like these.

Instead of dogs leaving we took in another, following an emergency call for help about a shiba inu whose leg was broken and the breeder didn't want to have to deal with it.  Via a go-between we arranged for the poor dog to go straight to Acorn so he could be at least assessed and started on pain relief, but by the time the van was arranged to come from the New Territories somewhere (probably Yuen Long), it was too late so we had to let the shiba stay the night at the Homing Centre before going to Acorn in the morning. 

From life on a rooftop, this is an upgrade

I now have a photo of the two ex-rooftop dogs to share, the ones I mentioned yesterday. If I have one last mission to fulfil in life, it is to show people that breed names mean nothing, and that every dog's life is precious.  I've been getting daily updates about Ziti, who flew to England last week to start his new life, and I have never seen a sweeter dog.  Every photo and video makes me smile, and it's quite incredible how Ziti has slotted into his new life so perfectly.  He's not a handsome dog in the traditional sense, and had he not been chosen by this particular adopter there's a very good chance that he would have spent his whole life at the Tai Po Homing Centre, as many dogs do.  What a waste of a beautiful character that would have been.  Who can look at Ziti trying to flirt with his new "sister" and not see what an amazing dog this is?   Please open your eyes and heart to the many others that are waiting at Tai Po, and give them the same chance to prove to you that they are just as kind, loyal and loving as any other. 

Suki has no back feet and is very sick

Would you rather support the breeders whose recent throw-outs include the new shiba inu with a broken leg, the shiba puppy with no back feet (who is also in hospital with parvovirus) and the pom puppy who not only had distemper but such bad congenital problems that she had to be euthanised?  Or do you think that a strong and healthy mixed breed with a heart of gold is a better choice?  I know where I stand.

 Poor tiny Snowy has to be euthanised