3:49
Shelter dog with 5-inch legs sits like a person
Jennifer saw him at the shelter and knew he needed to come home with her. His name there was Willie, and it took her a few days to decide he was a Hank for sure. more
His first owner had given him up. Hank is very low to the ground and, as Jennifer puts it, wider than he is tall. His legs are 5 inches long, and his chest is 9 inches wide. He has the look of a pit bull, with a scruffy little face.
People keep telling Jennifer to get a DNA test, and she hasn't. "I don't know if I care to know," she says. "He's Hank, and he's one of a kind." Viewers guessed anyway, and pit bull crossed with dachshund was the favorite.
Hank thinks he is funny. You can tell, Jennifer says, because he smiles when he runs and does things just to make them laugh. He hates kisses, even pretend ones, and she only has to make the face for him to want no part of it. But when he gets up close to you, you get a thousand kisses from him.
He reads her keys, too. Jennifer goes to work at the same time every day, and when she picks up her keys for that, Hank is fine with it. When she picks them up to go anywhere else, he wants to know where they're going.
He's very protective of her. When a friend stayed the night and fell asleep on the couch, Hank slept right beside him and growled a little every time the friend moved. The message was plain enough. Buddy, I'm watching you.
Then there's Penny, the pretty girl across the street. Penny is Hank's girlfriend. He sits up on the couch like a person so he can watch for her to come out, and when she steps onto their sidewalk he lets out a high, excited squeak. Jennifer lets him run out, he gives Penny a bunch of kisses, and then he runs back in.
SaveGunther, Jennifer's other dog, keeps watch from the couch too. Only Hank falls asleep sitting up, head still aimed at Penny's house. He's a sensitive dog who pouts at the smallest thing. One day he fell in front of Penny and wouldn't come out again, all because it was in front of Penny.
Jennifer doesn't know what happened to him before she got him. She hates that he spent his first year or two unhappy. Watching him grow into his big personality makes her want to go back to the shelter and get all the dogs. To her, he is the most amazing creature she has ever met.
