Hank used to run in a hundred-acre pasture outside Fort Worth most days. A hunting dog, he would chase rabbits and squirrels by light and at night go home where he would lie in the bed with John Verde and his wife.

One day before Thanksgiving, he didn’t come home. Verde panicked, searching the internet frantically for any sign of Hank.

He came across an article that had been published in the Bastrop Advertiser in January, about another treeing walker coonhound that had gone missing somewhere in Bastrop County. The shelter director there, Ashley Hermans, had employed the help of a few online sleuths at microchiphelp.com, who track animals using internet tools and found the dog’s owner in Waco.

The man made his way to Bastrop County to recover his lost pup.

Inspired by the story, Verde reached out to Hermans for help.

"This lady had gone way out of the way to help these people find their dog," Verde said. "I asked her if she had resources or ideas. She posted on Facebook and contacted her contacts, here and nationally. She did this repeatedly."

In exchange, Verde offered the shelter a gift of his own.

This weekend, he drove from Fort Worth to install $7,500 worth of high quality, weather-protectant windscreens to help shade and cool the dogs in their kennels this summer.

"Before, we had old stuff. We bought in sheets that were stuck up there with zip ties," Hermans said. "I’ve been wanting to replace it anyway — but I couldn’t have dreamed of something so nice."

Verde ran the screens along the south-facing sides of the kennels, which in Texas summers get especially hot, Hermans said.

"It looks amazing," she said. "It’s going to do a great job of providing the dogs out here with really much-needed shade."

The 24 sections of windscreens will provide weather protection year-round for the next 10 years, Verde said.

"Many dogs are going to benefit from this," he said.

As for Hank, there is still no sign of him.

The 5-year-old purebred coonhound has tags and a microchip, Verde said. He is gentle, curious and has a circle of black fur along his back and deep red-brown along his eyes and ears.

"We constantly look," Verde said. "We miss him every day."

Hermans continues to scour the internet for signs of Hank, reaching out to contacts in other cities.

According to data from Lost Dogs of Texas, 11 percent of the chips implanted in pets are tied to "dead" information, either because owners forget to register or fail to update their address and phone number when they move. It often takes an exhaustive process to track down owners, employing time and resources many shelters don’t have.

"I have tried to use as much of the internet resources as possible," Hermans said. "Sometimes that information gets buried."

The Bastrop shelter wants the public to know that Verde’s beloved dog is still missing.

"We want people to know he’s still looking for him," Hermans said. "There is hope that Hank is still out there yet."