Hank the Cowdog and his timid little assistant, Drover, are spending time at lazy Slim Chance's filthy hired hand shack. The carpet is thin and cheap, but the stove is warm.

Remember Buster, Muggs, and the other two town dogs from The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve and Moonlight Madness? They're back and getting their jollies chasing the calves in the weaning pen.

Hank is sent to deal with the dogs while Slim gets and loads his shotgun. Things don't go according to Hank's plan, but I got to chuckle.

Then Slim gets a call from his lady friend, the very nice Miss Viola. She's coming over to borrow something. Slim, whose lack of proper housekeeping has already gotten him injured, is frantic to clean up his pigsty before Miss Viola sees it.

The vacuum sweeper is an old model Sally May let Slim have. Hank and Drover do not appreciate one of the uses Slim finds for it.

Will Slim clean up in the nick of time as he has before? If he doesn't, will Miss Viola decide to dump him? She may not be as pretty as Sally May, but she looks nice enough in an illustration in chapter six to be able to do better for herself than Slim Chance. (Perhaps Miss Viola likes a challenge?)

Miss Viola warns Slim that she saw a pack of stray dogs. Slim is worried about the pack chasing the calves again, but not worried enough to want to spend the night on the cold November ground. Instead, he rigs up a burglar alarm. Hank may boast about it to the readers, but he doesn't actually like it.

There will be a fight and Hank will save the ranch again (was there any doubt?). This is the third time I've been forced to check out the book in print because my local library doesn't have an audio version. It means I didn't get to hear Hank singing 'Freezing on the Porch' or 'The Porcupine Blues'. I didn't get to hear the background music or the sound effects, but I could use my memory to imagine the dialogue in all the right voices.

As usual, I enjoyed Hank mangling words, arguing with Drover, and trying to make himself seem better than he is. ( )