Welcome Hank!

We have a puppy!

You’re right, I didn’t want another dog. I love having my life all to myself. Yet Jeff wanted one desperately. It started to feel like the not knowing of when we’d get a dog, or what we’d get, was getting to annoy me so much, somehow or other, we now have a puppy.

I am on the board of our Humane Society and volunteer at the shelter once in awhile, so I was there shortly after 4 husky puppies were surrendered. A really perfect adult dog was also surrendered. I met them all, and described them to Jeff, and he was interested in a puppy.

Dad was here by then, and over the next week, we went to visit them three times. There were two males and two females. I’ve had both, but really a male seemed just a bit easier to get fixed up here in the remote north, so we decided on a male.

I provided at least 350 dog names to Jeff, ranging from the fantastic to the terrible, yet right from the beginning, he was insistent that we name this puppy Hank.

I fought for days. Everyone we asked for their opinion loved the name Hank. I still can’t believe we have a puppy now, and that his name is Hank!

Anyway, here are some photos from Hank while he was at the shelter:

From what I know, Hank’s mother is a 13 year old Alaskan husky sled dog who got loose and into the neighbour’s yard while in heat. The father is a Greenland dog (similar to the Canadian Eskimo dog) who is also a sled dog. Basically he’s a husky mix and well suited for our weather and lifestyle in the Yukon. Here’s Hank and his brother. Dad liked the brother more, but Hank interacted more with me right from the start. He was only 6 weeks when he was surrendered, so we let him stay at the shelter with his littermates until this weekend so he had time to develop and play.

We had most of the supplies we needed. When Monty our golden retriever passed last year, we boxed up all of his supplies within a day. Losing those three golden retrievers almost put me off dog ownership forever.

Hank needed his own name tag though. And some food, and a few puppy toys.I couldn’t find a harness little enough for him, so I bought one he’ll fit into maybe in a month or so. In the meantime the shelter lent me a smaller one that we can use until he grows a bit. Here he is on the way home last Friday.

I’ve only had one puppy before (Monty) but I can tell how much different this one is. He does crazy things like leap off things. I wouldn’t say he isn’t afraid, just bold!

He seems like a really smart dog, and a fast learner.
I can also tell I’m in a much better frame of mind for this one. I adopted Monty right after losing my first two dogs, and I just wasn’t ready. I was grieving so hard and I was so frustrated he wasn’t as easy as my old dogs were.

Don’t get me wrong, a puppy is a full time job! He’s a good puppy. But that is because we’re trying really hard to be good owners. We’re getting him used to his crate, taking him outside every 20 minutes, and every time he goes to chew furniture (every 3 seconds) we replace it with a toy or a rawhide chew.

We’ve got an xpen coming for the kitchen, so he can have his own space while I work that is bigger than the crate. I have no idea how I’m going to work with this guy here now, but I will have to find a way!
Luckily, he sleeps a lot. And it is so nice when he is sleeping. And he’s so cute when he is sleeping.

He’s been sleeping through the night in his crate, only fussing the first bit. I got him up at 5:30 the last couple of mornings to go out.
He is so little. I had him stand on the bathroom scale and he’s somewhere around 8 pounds. He struts around like a little Chihuahua.Sally, our cat, is keeping him a hiss and paw swipe away, but they are both pretty curious of each other. Here’s hoping they become friends.