Hello
SPCA! How is my alma mater!
This is your friend and howler, Tank. I know I haven't written
in awhile, but when my female food giver and cuddler said you wrote, I
finally said to myself: "Tank, stop procrastinating! Sure I'm
lazy and love to sleep and loll about, but it's time to wake up and
respond to your old friends!" And so, I am.
When I first left you guys with that strange family, I thought oh no,
I
don't even speak their language! They figured out I understood
French after a few weeks, and then proceeded to teach me Hebrew.
I am never going to learn Hebrew, so I just go by the tone and what
makes the most sense and if they laugh, then I've done the right
thing. I am picking up the English now, but mon ami, this was
difficult! I still look when I hear French. Anyway ...
We live in a townhouse. The oldest son, the one I really am
"brothers" with, he built me a doghouse right away. He didn't
quite finish the entry, so the front is open, but he put a dog bed in
it with some toys after he painted it a very, very bright green so
that I couldn't miss it in a snowstorm. I like to sit outside,
but I only go outside to sit when I ask to, they never put me out by
myself otherwise. I love Saturday mornings when female food
giver and cuddler gets up early and it's just the two of us - if it is
sunny, I will ask to go sit in the sun, and she lets me out for
awhile. I always catch her watching me to see if I'm ok, but
that's ok, I love her too.
The
youngest is now 18 and goes away to university but comes home on
weekends. He is constantly trying to show his strength by
picking me up. I cannot be picked up, and I make myself a dead
weight so it's harder. But he is strong and lifts my front part
anyway. I just look with pleading eyes at female food giver and
cuddler until he puts me down. I love him though - whenever he
is home and takes food to his room to eat and watch his games or
something, he always invites me up and I get to sit on his bed.
Sure, female food giver and cuddler doesn't like it because I shed,
but he just ignores her and lets me on there anyway.
My "brother" and I, well, we go on camping trips and long walks all
the time. I stick by him like glue. We are buds.
That's all I have to say ... I think you know what I mean.
At first, I once tried to run away. They had bought me a
beautiful lead and collar - I still wear it today - and they thought I
was so tame and well-behaved that in a parking lot they let me walk
from the car to my female food giver and cuddler but I had them fooled
and ran! I ran and ran and ran!!!! But, I saw it was dark,
and a big field near where we were, and before I got lost and again
would end up in a pound, I regained my senses and found a troop on
motorcycles at a gas station. They called the number on my tag
and in minutes, my female and my brother were there!!! Boy, I
knew I was at the vet for something, but they sure made sure I was not
going to get lost. After that, it was a long, long time before
they would ever let go of the leash again. But I learned my
lesson and now when female food giver and cuddler goes to pick up one
or the other of my brothers, she says "want to come for a car ride?"
and I am there, and she lets me run to the car without holding on the
leash. I always go right to the car, I never scare her by going
out of her eyesight, and I get a little run and fun out of it! I
like being trusted.
While
they feed me Arcana, I don't like dog food as a rule and sometimes I
will whine until female food giver and cuddler cooks me something or
opens up a can of Green Venison tripe. I also love chili,
cabbage rolls, anything tomato-based really with meat, and chocolate.
I L-O-V-E chocolate. And the
vet says I can eat a bit of it. Yes, I once ate a giant Snickers
bar from my brother while he slept, but I couldn't eat the second one
and that's how he found me, burping, holding onto my second Snickers
bar. I also love donuts, but who doesn't. I love Granny's
cakes too, and she always feeds me cake when she visits, even if
everyone else says enough! Speaking of Granny, when she visits
and goes outside to walk a little or to smoke now and then (she cannot
smoke indoors, female food giver and cuddler hates smoking) I always
accompany her and sit at her side to protect her.
They bake me bones themselves and I am in heaven when I have all my
bones in a group on my bed in the living room, and I go to sleep
beside them. I only gnaw at them when someone is around, but
when all three are there, I really gnaw because I am so happy. I
sometimes really smile, lift my head up with a big smile on my face,
and everyone laughs!
I only got in trouble eating out of the garbage once. Female
food giver was cooking meat, and she left the tray with the sponge
bags on the counter. When she came back to throw them out, I had
absconded with the blood soaked bags to enjoy them. She
apparently saw this happen once before and started to get all crazy,
got me in the car and drove like crazy to the vet. Well, I
thought I was just going to have my nails trimmed but nope, I was
induced and they got the three bags out of me. She was almost in
tears knowing I would be ok. Now, she puts Comet all over the
trays and bags immediately, wraps them in bags, ties them up, puts
them in a big green garbage bag and outside into the garbage can so NO
ONE eats them. I am not going to eat them again I am sure but
hey, I love meat and who knows? I guess she thinks better safe
than sorry.
I
go to the Greenbank vet clinic in Barrhaven and I am on heartworm
Sentinel or something once a month. Gives me stomach ache for
two days each time, but apparently it protects me. When I first
came home with them, they had every test done under the sun and I had
some intestinal infection that took a long time to get rid of.
Since then, they check my poops (ech) and they give me those pills
once a month.
Oh, and I never mentioned Lulu! I will send you a picture of her
too. She is my nemesis when they are home, but she is just a
kindly old cat. Sure I would love to be friends, but she is
female food giver's friend. For a long while, she would take
food out of my bowl and put it in the dining room, and she would eat
some of it, so I would I guess be starved out and would leave.
But then she realized she is 8 pounds and couldn't put a dent in the
food situation, so she started to drink my water. Again, my
water bowl is bigger than her, so she gave up. Now, she doesn't
even hiss at me too often anymore.
I will be in touch - I think I may set up a Facebook page although you
can find me under my female food giver's site apparently. She
calls me Sir Tank-a-lot, but they also call me the Tankster,
Tankarooni, Tankman, Stanky Tank, Tankorama, and a plethora of others,
including Bud. I answer to all of them. I think they are
still trying to figure out my real name, but that's ok. And yes,
I missed my old home at the beginning, and I was quite depressed and
sad, but now I am much better - I think I have adopted my new family
but I wish my old family well and I wish you all well for saving me.
PS I will send more photos as soon as one of my family here get
them sorted!
Tank
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