Hank the Cowdog is a long-running, ongoing series of children's books written by John R. Erickson and illustrated originally by Gerald L. Holmes, and later by Nikki Earley.
Hank suffers a superiority complex, and thinks he is smarter than everybody else; his intelligence is limited to that of the average dog.
[2] In each book Hank and other characters must deal with several events, issues and mysteries that occur at their Texas Panhandle home in Ochiltree County.
The series has received awards and critical acclaim, and the books have sold more than eight million copies worldwide.
[3] Teaching programs are available for the series via Maverick Books and a story entitled The Case of the Dancing Cowboy was serialized in 2002, in several American newspapers.
Hank has a superiority complex which causes him to have an inflated sense of his own intelligence, strength, courage and attractiveness.
Much of the humor of the series comes from Hank as narrator shamelessly attempting to make himself seem more competent with hindsight than he really was, but the reader is rarely fooled.
Despite his flaws Hank is deeply loyal to his family and the ranch community and usually rises to the occasion at the moment of true crisis.
Drover has a great deal of curiosity and often asks Hank obscure questions such as "Why does the moon rise in the evening and set in the morning?"
[7] However, he is not very smart, frequently taking figures of speech literally, and misunderstanding the military jargon which Hank often uses.
In reality, her feelings fluctuate between disgust and temporary respect as Hank usually follows up his shenanigans with an act of heroism.
In "Murder in the Middle Pasture" when Sally May is giving Slim a lecture on how he will understand the importance of social events when he is married, Loper mouths the words "no you won't" behind her back.
Some of these are harmless, though in "The Case of the Hooking Bull" Alfred deliberately tricks Hank into going into the dryer and then turns the machine on, showing he has a mischievous streak.
Most of the story "Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest" revolves around Hank's search for Alfred when he goes missing in the woods.
Pete is Sally May's favorite pet and he frequently uses this to his advantage in his petty clashes with Hank.
In "The Case of the Missing Cat" Hank eventually loses patience with Pete and tries to strand him on the plains, but has a change of heart and rescues him from the coyotes Rip and Snort.
In the "Secret Sleeping Powder Files", Pete becomes lost, and Hank reluctantly helps find him, at the request of Sally May.
It is unclear how long Slim has worked at the ranch, but despite several comments made about wanting to move to a bigger operation, he has never quit.
Slim lives in a rundown shack two miles from ranch headquarters, and maintains a filthy house, frequently leaving old dishes, clothes, food, and livestock magazines lying around and fostering a chronic rodent problem.
He also hates cooking, which results in him maintaining a horrible diet and eating things that would disgust the average reader, like sardine and ketchup sandwiches and boiled turkey necks.
Although Slim loves to play pranks on Hank and poke fun at him, it is clear he has an affinity for both him and Drover, frequently asking them to come along with him on odd jobs.
Rip and Snort: Two coyote brothers who sometimes feel friendly towards Hank, but are forever threatening to eat him.
The brothers are "All brawn and no brain", and Hank manages to escape from sticky situations involving them by tricking them.
In once case, Hank convinces them that if they stick their heads on either sides of a hollow log, and count to 50,000, the moon which is made of chicken, will fall, and they can eat it.
Scraunch: A vicious coyote near the top of the pack's pecking order, he maintains an intense hatred of Hank.
For example, in Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest, she and Hank were tied upside-down to a tree branch, while Rip and Snort were planning to eat them below.
He takes pleasure in catching Hank sleeping during the day, and waking him up in order to give him his "information".
Her father Woodrow convinces Slim to invest money into livestock and allows him to use his land keep them there, in "The Case of the Monster Fire".
The episode featured changes the original book: coyotes talking normally instead of their own goofy language like in the books, child removed, chicken farm in Arizona instead of cattle ranch Texas, went from married couple and a ranchhand to female in charge and 2 ranchhands.
It starred the voices of Matthew McConaughey as Hank, Jesse Plemons as Drover, Kirsten Dunst as Sally May, John R. Erickson as Wallace the buzzard, Scoot McNairy as Junior, Michael Shannon as Sinister the Bobcat, Joel Edgerton as Rip and Snort, Leslie Jordan as Pete the Barn Cat and Cynthia Erivo as Madame Moonshine.