MY NEW DOGGY FOSTER BROTHER!

Hank and I get acquainted

When Mom came home from the Humane Society yesterday, she brought us a new foster brother, and he is a DOG, not another dumb cat!  His name is Hank, just like my basenji boyfriend Hank, who used to live in Austin with Aunt Cheryl.  But this new Hank is not a basenji.  He's a hound dog.  Mom likes to say "he ain't nothin' but a hound dog," and she thinks she is being funny when she says this, but I think she's just being dumb.

Mel and Hank get acquainted

Anyway, Hank is a coonhound, but I don't know if he ever went hunting for raccoons or not.  Maybe he did in his younger days, but now Hank is about 8 years old.  He ended up at the shelter because he was a stray dog.  There is something wrong with his right front foot, so he walks with a limp, and sometimes he holds his foot up when he is walking.  We think this means his foot hurts him.

Hank's funny right foot

When Hank's foot got x-rayed, it turned out that he had some bones that broke but aren't healing right.  We don't know how his foot got broken.  Hank doesn't like to talk much about his past.  An orthopedic surgeon at the University of Missouri vet school looked at the x-rays, and he said that maybe if Hank wore a splint thingy for a couple of months, it would straighten his foot out, and then he wouldn't have to have surgery.












A nice lady at the shelter, Aunt Jen, started looking for a foster home for Hank about three weeks ago, and Mom said she would do it because it sounded like Hank would be very mellow and easy to have around.  Then when Mom was ready to bring Hank home, some dogs at the shelter got sick with kennel cough, and there was a quarantine.  So Mom couldn't bring Hank home.  And after that, it looked like somebody wanted to adopt Hank, and we thought he wouldn't need a foster home at all.  But then yesterday when Mom went to the shelter, she found out that the people never did call back about adopting Hank, so we think they changed their minds.

Hank's bootie.  The green vetrap
 is just to keep the ends of the velcro straps
from flapping around.

Dr. Kimber, who is taking care of Hank at the shelter, only just got the splint, so she was trying it out on him.  At first, he thought he couldn't possibly walk with it on, but later he decided maybe he could.  The splint thing is sort of like one of those boots that people wear after they break their foot or ankle.  It makes a loud clunk noise on the floor when Hank walks around, and he sounds like Captain Ahab with his wooden leg.















Right now, Hank only has to wear the boot for a couple of hours every day.  This does not seem like very much, but it's what Dr. Kimber said.  At the shelter, Hank stood nice and still while the boot got put on, but when Mom put it on him at home, he danced all around, and he kept taking his foot out of the thing before Mom could get it fastened up, but finally she did.

Oh, and did I mention that Hank also has heartworms?  I told you all about heartworms in a previous blog entry.  Hank is being treated for them, but he is not supposed to run around and be very active while the treatment is going on.

Hank sits on the sofa like he belongs there,
which I find annoying.

Anyway, at first I thought Hank was a pretty nice dog, but now I'm not so sure.  When I was on the sofa in my favorite spot last night, and Hank came along, I growled at him a little to let him know that I was there first, and that he was not welcome.

Later on, Hank got on the sofa while I was busy checking out the floor in the kitchen.  But Hank didn't seem to mind if I got on the sofa, too.  Except one time he growled at me and got snarky, so I had to go sit next to Mel in front of the fireplace (which did not have any fire in it).  Then at bedtime, we all went into the kitchen to get our traditional bedtime snacks.  Mel and Hank and I each got a treat, and we gobbled our treats down right away.

Mom went in the kitten room to see what the kittens were up to and to get their dishes so she could feed them.  While she was there, Hank and I got in a fight, and I started screaming for help.  Then Mom came running out of the kitten room, and she saved my life by making Hank let got of me.  He had me totally pinned to the floor, but I didn't really get hurt.  I just got scared.  Mom was scared, too.  We have all got used to cat fights around here lately, but we haven't had any dog fights since Barry went away.

I think the problem is because I have been the Alpha dog around here for a couple of months now, and suddenly Hank comes in and thinks he will be the Alpha dog.  Mom says we have to work things out between us, which I guess we will try to do.  I just hope it won't be too hard or take too long!