Handcent or other messaging app to display undread badge on dock

Now I love the standard messaging app as much as anyone (or a little less, perhaps). But I've decided to try out Handcent. Problem is, up until this point I've kept the default SMS-app that comes with my phone on my dock. The advantage of this is that I always knew how many unread messages I had thanks to the badge (button/tag/wording may vary) in the top-right corner of the app-icon. It was this little red-orange label with a number on it. Problem is, that the default Handcent icon doesn't provide this. I do have the option to use the widget that does the same thing, but widgets don't go on the dock. Because this was apparently a great idea according to some dev. Is there any way to get a Handcent icon, complete with badge, on my dock?