Every Dog Has His Day … Well, Maybe
And no dog deserves it more than Hank the Cowdog. Hank and his best friend and protégé, Drover, serve up their adventures with a side order of laughter and canine wisdom. Hank is the self-appointed "Head of Ranch Security" while his friend Drover is deputy. Their job is to protect the ranch from all manner of coyotes, evil felines, monsters in bushes, flying buzzards and more. And what do they get in return? A dish full of "Econo Dog Food," that's what. But through it all Hank keeps his head held high because without him the humans would never survive … or so he believes.
"Hank the Cowdog" is the brainchild of John Erickson. And what a brainchild he is! When I first picked up this collection I wasn't sure if my girls were going to like it. Along with the book "The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse" we also got a cassette tape that contained excerpts of Hank's story The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado and a travel game called Tornado (it reminds me of the game "Trouble" from the good old days). My two year-old is a horse fanatic, so I assumed this would be something more up his alley as he got older. My older daughters are nine and six and I thought this might not interest them very much. Princesses and playing dress up are more in their line. Boy was I wrong! I popped the cassette into the car radio and within ten minutes we were all laughing ourselves silly.
My kids enjoyed the cassette so much that I went to the library and picked up a couple more volumes of Hank's adventures. (Mr. Erickson does an excellent job of infusing each dog's character into their speaking voices and the silly songs that he sings are priceless. I guess having worked alongside the real life Hank and Drover helped him to form voices for them.) My husband is of a much more serious nature, so I wasn't sure if he was going to enjoy the audiotapes, but I figured I'd give him a try. At first my husband had a puzzled look on his face as the tape first began (hearing a dog sing a song about a tornado can do that to a person), but even he started chuckling as the story went on. So, that's a 5 star rating out of 5!
My daughters have been having a really good time with the Tornado game. I think they were trying to land on the Tornado symbol just so they could spin the wheel and start their own little tornados. My youngest daughter ran downstairs to tell me "Mommy it looks like a real tornado – that's really cool!" And since this summer I'm a road warrior chauffeuring them from activity to activity it's nice to have a game that doesn't require batteries to keep them occupied. The Tornado game is self-contained with all the pieces fitting inside its case. It's perfect for car trips and is quiet, unlike those beeping and chirping
As a member of the Ranch Security Force (a Hank the Dog book club for the kids), our little package also came with the book, "The Case of the One Eyed Killer Stud Horse" was a hoot! Hank's troubles begin with the "Case of the Poisoned Bacon Grease" and goes downhill from there. His master's wife is injured. He's forced to be dressed up by two little girls and then he's supposed to catch a Killer Stud Horse all by his lonesome. One of the few good things that happened to him was watching his arch-nemesis Pete the Cat gets manhandled by his master's son. So you see, there is some justice in this world. And in this particular story Hank finally gets a little respect from his human compatriots. So I guess every dog does have at least one day.
If you visit Hank's website at www.hankthecowdog.com you'll see that Hank has been a busy dog over the years with over 54 books to his credit. And the great thing (at least for my family) is that all of Hank's adventures are recorded so they are the perfect way to keep everyone happy on our many driving adventures. And I just found out that there is a brand new CD out called "Hank's Tales and Tunes" which is a great introduction of all of the varied and colorful creatures that abound in Hank's world. I audios are done in the old style radio shows so it's really fun listening to all of the sound effects while the dialogue is going on.
And the best thing of all about this is CD is that it's on sale for just $3.00! That's not as good as my favorite word ("F-R-E-E"), but it's pretty darn close. So, if you're looking for some affordable entertainment to take with you on the road (or to encourage an early bedtime for your little ones), this falls into the category of being too much fun to miss.
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