On Monday, the floor under the surgery table in Vietnam was puddled with blood. But my goodness did Dream, bear number V100, feel so much better once all her rotten teeth had been removed. Vet Kirsty, along with Caz, Rae and team all worked like troopers following the rescue of our 14 bears; bent double over this poor bear as they drilled, manoeuvred and removed teeth that had been the source of constant pain for at least 7 or 8 years.
Our truly amazing Australian ambassador has done it again - lovely celeb Peter Northcote and Bands for Bears member Brydon Stace, singer extraordinaire, were at Lalor Park Primary School special needs class where they had the kids with their hands up for the bears.
Oh how very nice it was to be back in the USA and Canada in the second part of our Roadshow.
Our UK office is running a Twitter and email competition that will see a family of four enjoying an evening performance of the Firework-maker's Daughter at London's Bloomsbury Theatre on 15 December 2011.
Last Sunday turned out to be a rather special day after Eddie and I were invited to join and speak at a family pet service at the Resurrection Church in Sai Kung, Hong Kong.
This picture is what Dr Dog is all about. Our final World Animal Day event held in Guangzhou last Sunday, which also celebrated 20 years of Dr Dog, was an unprecedented success. Over 300 people came along, including 90 special-needs children, such as this gorgeous young girl enjoying some unique hugs and therapy from Dr Dabu.
The rescued market dogs now safe at the Qi Meng rescue centre are doing as well as can be expected. More or less our whole vet and senior bear team were there at the end of last week, including Monica, Jo, Sofie, Sally, Nic, Wendy, Alice, Howard, Rocky and Wen Yan, all working feverishly to complete the vaccinations and separating more dogs into areas, depending on their injuries and disease.
It's always nice to be back in Hong Kong and especially over these past couple of weekends, showing just how unique and special my "other" home really is.
Such a sad story this weekend from Louise Rogerson, Founder of EARS (Elephant Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation). Louise worked for Animals Asia in our UK office several years ago and went on to found EARS in November 2010.
Some of the notes in the weekly reports from China and Vietnam bear sanctuaries have me in stitches. This week in China they tried some new enrichment food in the form of yummy orange pancakes — and here was one of the results from House 2 as described by Bear Manager Sally:
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