He's just special...and precious

I don't think I'll ever run out of Hank the Tank II stories...I figure as long as we keep him alive, you'll be hearing about him.  This weekend, Jay got the electric fence hooked up for the horses so they can graze again.  This is a new venture for us.  We've had fence around our place, but not the electric kind.

Jay bought the fence that is portable and easy-to-install...of course, I can say that because I had nothing to do with putting it up...it's three strands of this thick white fencing.  (I think it looks like the webbing on a lawnchair.)  You string it up on the posts and plug it into a fence charger and it's LIVE. 

Jay wanted to show us how to turn it off and on so that we can get in and out if we need to so we all loaded up on the golf cart and headed back there.  Abby and Hank followed us.  He demonstrated the charger and how you can hear it ticking and the little light glows, etc.  It's hot with power and ready to go.  Abby bumps into it and yelps.  Ouch, she says.  We all kinda laugh and said Hank should probably get zapped so he would realize not to get near it.

He gets right up next to it, you think his tail is going to nip it any second, nope.  He somehow misses it with every swing.  Finally, the kids decide to throw a stick onto the other side of the fencing.  (I know, they're cruel but we didn't stop them.)  Hank barrels under the fencing without a second's hesitation and grabs the stick.  He comes right back through, crawling under neath the lowest strand.  You can hear the faint zap-zap noise as he makes contact, but again, there's no response.  He drops the stick and kinda looks back like, hmm, that was weird. Nothing more. 

Abby, in that two-minute window, apparently forgot that the white thick strand had zapped her already because she walked right up to it and touched it with her nose.  Zap.  She yelped and crawled under the golf cart.  This totally cracked the kids up because Abby was acting like it was just awful and Hank could have cared less.  We often tease that Hank isn't very smart...really.  (Don't tell him this, but I think he may be one of the dumbest Labs we've ever had.)

Again, we tried the stick trick and again Hank was not deterred, although he did give it a secondlook as he passed through, like hmm, what was that?  No yelping, no running or hiding.  Incredible.  Jay noticed this morning that Woody the horse would not get near it, so obviously he has figured it out.  Maybe Hank has a higher pain tolerance than the other animals (which explains his behavior after I drove over him a few months ago with both tires.)    One thing is for certain, Hank the Tank II is definitely one-of-a-kind...he's special and precious.