Hanker

A long, long time ago, there was a happy hound dog named Hank who had a blog.  Maybe one day I won't be so ashamed to disclose the blog address to you.  One day I may also turn Hank's adventures into a children's book.  But for now, it's embarrassing.  There are a select 3 or 4 people who have the web address, and we shall keep it at that.  I looked at it tonight, and it feels like a former life of ours.  Old house.  No baby.  Struggling through grad school and working night shift.  Happy hound dog.  It was funny to look at.  Now I feel like I need to blog a little bit more about our poor hound dog.  Here are some things you should know to get to know him better:

1. We adopted Hank from the humane society a couple of months before we got engaged.  We just went to "look", and those big puppy eyes stole our hearts.  See how cute he was?

1. (Really #2, but I can't make it work.)  Hank LOVES people.  Understatement of the year.
2. He eats his whole bowl of dog food in 15 seconds flat.  Huge improvement from the 3.5 seconds when we got him.  
3. His tail wags a lot.  And he smiles.  You probably think I'm crazy, but many people can vouch for this.
4. In a former life, Hank would have told you he was the happiest dog in the world, as evidenced by the blog.  Now, I'm not so sure what he would say.  He may tell you he is in the top 5 happiest dogs in the world.  Here's what changed it all:

look how tiny Porter was

He loves Porter.  But he now shares the attention.  Lately, though, I have been trying extra  hard to include Hank on everything.  And I think it is helping.  I have navigated the jogging stroller and Hank on jogs in the neighborhood (quite the task).  I have let Porter reach out and pet Hank.  I have loved on Hank more.  Just recently, I had to take Hank in for his well-child checkup.  Oh how he hates that day of the year.  He managed to survive being poked and prodded while I stood at his head and pet him, telling him what a good boy he was.  I honestly think he was more scared that I was leaving him there to be boarded.  So he was a happy boy to go home.  

One more thing you should know about Hank.  He is WAY smarter than I ever knew.  I always knew he was smart, but people, you don't even know.  Here's how all this came about.  Hank has a tag on his collar with his name and Jonathan's cell number.  That one tag has saved his life about 6 times so far.  The phone call goes something like this: "Uh...Hi...Do you have a dog named Hank?  I have him here..."  Well this happened about a month ago, and we blamed it on our gate not getting shut in the yard.  A nice passerby put Hank back in and shut the gate.  It happened again a couple of weeks ago while we were at church.  This time, we pulled in, saw the gate open, I freaked out for a sec, then saw Hank waiting on us in the front yard.  I developed a new respect for him because he didn't run off for once.  Then, last week.  We get the standard call.  We head home thinking that the nice passerby put him back into the fence.  Jonathan says, "I bet she couldn't get him back there.  I bet he's lying on the front porch waiting for us."  And, sure enough, there he was on the front porch.  What we have concluded: Hank knows how to open the gate, and then goes into the front yard for a better view of when we come home.  

He is like a protector of his family and want us all together.  He's a mess.

Lots of Love,

Beth