Another Exciting Weekend for Hank

On Saturday it was time to head back to Marymoor. The fences in the water are finally down, so he can jump until his heart's content. We went last weekend as well, because I thought it would be done, but it was the next day, at least the water levels were higher so he didn't hurt himself. He swam a TON.

Michelle had mentioned that she and Joe wanted to take Lucy (their boxer) to the dog park figuring that if she was going to swim, it would be because she followed Hank into the water. Well, she didn't, and she's pretty funny with other dogs. While Hank has a one track mind for tennis balls and the water, she was all over every dog in that park that might play with her. On more than one occasion was Joe missing, only to reappear moments later with Lucy on her leash "in time out." But the dogs had a GREAT time and both slept the rest of the afternoon...

And then we went to Joe & Michelle's for dinner last night. We brought Hank with which was really fun, and kind of a zoo. Lucy was VERY excited to show off her house and big back yard to Hank. They played and ran around, and Lucy peed on the floor while we ate dinner (yeah, her parent's weren't very happy) and then while I kicked everyone's butt at Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture, the puppies finally fell asleep...

I'm a much better puppy parent than this...

My brother Jake sent me this e-mail yesterday...

I got this from another teacher at work, and she thought it was hilarious. I started to think about my own sister who embarasses her "beloved" dog. It must get lost in translation....but this is pretty funny.

Only one large lab named Hank allowed!

Tonight when I went to pick up Hank from Day Camp, they will still all in the play room mozing around. So I walked over to the window to see Hank, and a kid was there with his REALLY big black lab. I was trying to get Hank's attention, and tapping on the window being annoying as possible, but to no avail. And then the sister of the boy next to me said something about Hank. And I turned over to them, uhhh...is your dog named Hank? Sure enough...well so is mine! So, I went into to get Hank out of day camp, and when we came out, the other Hank and his family were still checking out the dogs in day camp. So, we let the two large lab's named Hank sniff each other out. The black lab Hank is about 100 pounds and is 3 years old. It was just too random.

Speaking of random...tonight I was making linguine & clam sauce for dinner and I pulled a noodle out of the pot to check it for done-ness. I was flinging it around to cool it off, then I took a bite and it was still pretty crunchy. So, Hank was sitting on the floor snuggling with Jeremiah, and I started to swing the noodle a little and moved it down to give to Hank as a treat. Well, more trick than treat evidently...Hank JUMPED up, started barking, growing and clubbed Jeremiah in the face. He FREAKED at the noodle. So please, when you see Hank (my Hank) next, no flying noodles at him!

Hank the Neutered Stud

Did I ever tell you the story about the guy who walked into the Pets Hotel and left his phone number for us to see if we would be interested in studding Hank? Yeah, my dog's hot.

Anyway, last night we took Hank with us to dinner at our friend Brooke & Gabe's house. Their dog Nala is a white German Shepherd and she's about 4 years old. She is a very pretty dog, and it was our first time meeting her. Brooke barely had the front door open before Nala was nosing right out of it, and Hank ran STRAIGHT into the house and was around the corner before Gabe even got out of the kitchen. It was pretty cute.

Hank and Nala ran after each other, napped and played ALL night long, they had so much fun! I'm always a little apprehensive when Hanks meets a new dog. He's always pretty good, but we've had a couple of nipping dogs, and sometimes he can get snippy, so I'm just a little nervous to bring him into someone else's home...but they did GREAT, and had so much fun together, it was adorable!

Watch out for the Big Angry COATS!

Yesterday it was so nice out, we decided to take Hank on a walk in downtown Issaquah. Besides going to the Brewhouse, we don't go downtown much. So, we put Hank in the car and parked downtown to do a big loop of the shops and the train depot. As we were walking up the street, a woman started to walk towards us. She made a comment about how cute Hank is, and then he started to FREAK out! He was hiding behind us, and looked like he wanted to ESCAPE. I couldn't figure it out. There were shops along the street, including a women's clothing shop. And outside there were a rack of Coats. But, not just any coats, big fur coats with animal fur on them. The woman walked up to pet Hank, and as he kept hiding, we all realized that he was afraid of the coats! The looked like large animals to him, and it scared him.

Although slightly traumatizing for our dog he made it through the rest of the walk relatively unscathed...