Blue Ribbon Winner

Recently the boys’ school hosted a dog show.  This year they opened it up to all the children and Jackson informed us that he was bringing Hank.  While I was happy that he was showing initiative, I may have felt a little twinge of annoyance that it was going to be taking up several hours of my Friday afternoon.
So we gave him a nice wash {we meaning Allen and Jackson!}. Then he got a stylish new haircut{I did that}.
Since the little ones, at their school, get out at 12 on Fridays, I brought the boys home, fed them lunch and only one of them was interested in changing into clean clothes.  I don’t have to tell you who that was!! It was the same one that asked me 18 or 345 times if it was time to go to the dog show yet.
Let me tell you that seeing Jackson showing off his dog to the entire school quickly erased any annoyance that I may have briefly harbored.

Miller wanted to escort Hank initially, but he got a little distracted…


And wouldn’t you know it Hank won!  He got first place in the “Most Handsome” category.  Jackson was so excited!
I love that their school promotes their independence and self esteem this way.  So wonderful to watch!
Miller got a bit distracted by this St. Bernard.  I’m pretty sure he would have ridden him home if he’d been able to saddle him!

He loves him a big dog!

I’ve never really written about how Hank came to be our dog.  This is as good of chance as any, so here goes!
When Allen and I lived in Laredo, Texas {Armpit doesn’t even begin to describe it} we had to go to a kiosk type thing to buy water.  While we were there feeding quarters into the water machine, this dog came up and sat down beside me and smiled at me.  Of course I couldn’t resist,so I had Allen go get him some food from the little market that was across the parking lot.  He gobbled it up, so Allen got another can or two.  Bless his heart his fur was burned on top and his ears were matted to his sides so he couldn’t really turn his head.  Eventually he was satisfied and trotted away. 

When we got home we couldn’t get him off of our minds.  He was on a busy 4 lane road and we knew he needed help.  So we went back out and found him roaming the streets.  He was pretty happy to come in the car with us.  We thought we would find his owners and he’d be gone in a day or two. 

We washed him that afternoon and clipped the mats off his ears so he could turn his head.  He had horrible fleas and about 60 ticks on him.  Not baby ticks, either.  Full ticks.  UGH! 

We went and got him a crate and put him in our garage that night.  Despite the crate he somehow managed to paint our garage with what had been ALPO the day before.  Wow!  Thanks for showing your gratitude in such a “special way!”  Little did we know this was his first sign of Separation Anxiety.

The next day we took him to the vet {the ONE vet in town}, and were surprised that he had not been seen by her before.  When I picked him up that afternoon, his name was listed as “No Name Smith”.  Well, that just wouldn’t do at all.  He needed a name and we christened him “Hank” by that evening.  Obviously he was now ours.

He is the most loyal dog ever.  He has one hobby and it’s not playing ball.  His one hobby is us.  More specifically me.  He has big time anxiety when we leave him.  Each and every time we return he greets us so enthusiastically then eats the dog biscuit we left him and drinks water.  He can’t bear to have food and water while we are gone.  He just has a touch of Major Mental Health issues.  Just a touch though, wink, wink.

After the boys came along he has become an even more beloved part of the family.  He puts up with everything they dish out so patiently.  They adore him and he adores them right back.

We think he is about 11 years old now and he is pretty deaf and has some white coming in in this eyebrows, but hope that we still have many more good years with him.

He’s the only blue ribbon winning dog that we will ever be fortunate enough to have picked us for his owners.