Dog Blog

Hank Hound came to be at our house today.

Other people just go to the pound and pick out a dog, but because its us, it got all long and complicated. He was at the city shelter and I saw this wonderful photo at Petfinders, so I called. They told us he was in foster care and couldn't get out, since for some reason that the shelter couldnt explain he wasn't actually UP for adoption, but we could go meet him. He was unusually unafraid of both Jeff's wheelchair and Eli's prancing and he leaned right on me and gave me the old sweetie pie eyes and we were all pretty much captivated. Then we waited a week for whatever they couldn't explain to be resolved and today we got to go get him.

They think he's one year old and some kind of beagle/lab mix. He's about 30 pounds and keeps his nose the ground when he's outside.

So far he's as nice as can be, real friendly and playful but not rough with Eli, real snuggly with all the grown-ups. Fetched a ball 429 times this afternoon. Went for a couple of walks with me, and we're getting the hang of the leash.

He barked at his reflection in the glass back door until I covered it with a curtain.

We've had him about eight hours so far. He has not pooped. Is that usual?

He has, however, eaten a lot. Two big bowls of food, two medium sized Newman's snack treats, three hot-dog pieces we threw in his crate thinking it would help him love it (wrong about that), one piece of frozen sweet potato, one slice of cucumber and uncounted number of cheerios, popcorns, crusts, blueberries, playdoh rounds and other floor detritus of summer.

The landlord was a little worried that a dog might ruin the floors, but sir I can assure you that this is the shiniest those floors have been since we've lived here.

Now I'm off to bed to ponder this question: How do you sleep with a dog in the house?