That is, if he's in the mood.
When we first brought him home, he looked like he does in the picture above. That was our first picture of our new dog. It was kind of exciting, and yet kind of stressful. This dog was -weird-. Well bred, supposedly. But beyond the shadow of a doubt, he was a strange dog. Not normal. We brought him into the back yard, at 3 months, and all he did was sit. He didn't want to run around or sniff or anything. He just sat there and panted and sat and panted and sat and panted and sat. That in and of itself freaked us out, because when we got our first dog, all she wanted to do was run around and try to figure things out. But Winston just sat there. Finally we tried to bring him into the house. And he just sat. Then he laid down. But did he move from that one particular tiny place in the whole house? Nope. We were actually quite scared something was wrong with him. Finally, we decided to put him in his crate. And that dog was asleep in two seconds, and he slept hard, let me tell you. I think his crate could have fallen in on top of him and he wouldn't have noticed. When he woke up, he made the first distinct memory in me. My brother was playing guitar, and Winston looked up slowly, and stared at Spencer, and then his head started bobbing. To the beat of the guitar music. And he did it for as long as Spencer was playing. It was absolutely hilarious, and he's never done it again, but that is my first distinct memory of Winston.
But Winston wasn't exactly what we had first expected. At first we expected a very quiet, sweet dog who never did anything wrong.
-snorts back laughter-
Two or three nights later, my whole family was up the whole night, because that dog would not shut up for anything. He was whining and howling literally the whole night.
And we soon found out this dog was the most rambunctious, misbehaving, clever little puppy in the world. For instance, when we were trying to teach Winston how to come...? Eh. That didn't go over so well. Our yard back then was huge. Lots of space to run around in. You'd think, though, when you're chasing this tiny little ball of fluff, you'd be able to catch him pretty easily.
Wrong again. I remember several times chasing Winston around the yard for 10 or 15 minutes before I was able to catch him, or sometimes just gave up. He was a mess. He was annoying. He was so dern cute. Honestly, I've rarely met a dog as misbehaving as Winston. But all the same, we can't help but love him. He's so cute, and so sweet.
Most of the time. The picture above was from Winston's first Christmas. That dog was absolutely hilarious, and my family was in fits of laughter the whole morning. Winston had an addiction to bows back then, apparently. There was this one bow in particular that he absolutely loved. It was a mini bow, and the whole thing could fit in his mouth. Winston has a reputation for eating inedible things, and so we were trying to figure out what was in his mouth. He finally dropped it. A whole bow. In his mouth. Later on that morning we found another bow back in the hallway shredded to pieces.
I remember another time, Winston found some knitting back in my room. And Winston is like a cat sometimes. For instance, he likes yarn. A lot. He dragged the ball of yarn from my room all the way down the hallway (and it was an extremely long hallway too) to my brother's room.
He has also been known for shredding Spanish moss and toilet paper all the way down that hallway as well.
As I said before, Winston has a reputation for eating. Anything. We've nicknamed him "the goat" because he eats absolutely everything in sight.
In his first year, he ate - a snail, a dead cicada (a wing was hanging out of his mouth when he came in), and a dried up dead frog.
Just yesterday, my dad found him eating a dead black bird in the back yard.
Considering all of this, it's amazing I'll let his face get that close to mine.
Oh, Winston is also a very literate dog. For instance, once he found "A Taste of Chaucer", which is an old, rare version of Chaucer that we got for cheap at a book sale. Well, Winston took the "taste" part of it literally. And. Well. He had a nice taste of the binding.
But for all of his mischief, Winston is extremely sweet. It used to be that he wouldn't get close to anybody for anything. But now, if he's really tired, or "blinky" as we call him, he'll get all cuddly and just sit there with you and let you scratch him. And even though he has spent literally whole days whining (and still does sometimes), he'll eventually be quiet and just sit there and stare at you as you squeal out how adorable he is.
When we got Winston, I thought he was just going to be "the dog." You know. He sits there. He exists. You pet him. You feed him.
But honestly, in September of 2007, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Because now, this little butter ball has absolutely stolen my heart. Which is why I call him "mah boyfraannddd."
I love Winston.
And that is all I have to say.
"We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven
has accorded this to us
in the uncritical canine attachment."
{george eliot}
has accorded this to us
in the uncritical canine attachment."
{george eliot}
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