The Story of Hank - and How he Found his Forever Home

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Our family officially adopted Hank on May 16th, a month shy of his third birthday. We were only planning on fostering him, something we were happy to do as he waited for his forever family to appear. Hankie had been living with a family with 3 very young children since he was a young puppy. He started developing growling and snapping behaviors from the time he was around 6 months old and although his family loved him they finally realized that it was too dangerous for him to stay in their family so he was surrendered to NiSHA in May of 2019. That’s when he came to our home as a foster dog, joining our family of 3 humans, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

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Hankie’s difficult behavior continued. After many vet visits, including a trip to an animal behaviorist combined with a wide variety of tests, it was decided that his problems were a combination of neurological and behavioral.... We experimented with different meds and behavioral plans and zeroed in on a good combination although Hankie will always be a special needs kind of guy. Lots of people were interested in possibly adopting Hank but his health and behavior issues just proved to be too much for anyone to handle.

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In spite of Hankie’s issues, it was hard not to fall in love with him... In a loving home, with a very stable routine, he was almost always a very sweet and happy pup..... Super snuggly and playful... and able to get along very well with our dogs and cats. Finally, one day in May of 2020, we realized that Hank was no longer our foster dog.... Hank, aka “Hankie Pankie”, aka “Hank the Tank” had wiggled his way into our hearts and he had become a member of our family without us even realizing it... We made it official in one of his favorite spots - his special beach where he loves to swim and bite at the waves! Welcome home Hankie... We love you!!