The incredible story of Winston
Most of you know me, “Ron”, as the Webmaster of oes.org and also this forum. I am married to “Joan” who posts here occasionally. Our real names are indeed Joan and Ron. We have been members of a New England Sheepdog rescue organization since 1992, when we adopted Jake. A few years later, that group reorganized as New England Old English Sheepdog Rescue, Inc. (NEOESR), and for the last 5 years, I have been a member of it’s Board of Directors. Joan was also very active with the organization, serving as it’s Merchandise Chair, supplying logo merchandise for the members of the group and the public until about a year ago. For the last year, Joan and I have traveled around the country in our motorhome. We have chronicled that trip through pictures and a forum just like this at http://www.HappieCamper.com . Briefly, we started this trip in November, 2002, leaving out home in Boston. We spent the next 7 ½ months crisscrossing the country and Canada, arriving at the border of Alaska about July 1st. Along the way, we had to make a horrible decision about our beloved Jake in February, while we were in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, August 26th, Joan and I were visiting Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, and talking about getting another Sheepdog. We still miss Jake quite a bit, and there’s a hole in our lives that only a Sheepie can fill. So we visited NEOESR’s website and sent off an email to our placement coordinator about our desire for a dog. The next day, Wednesday, August 27th, I received an email from a woman in Hawaii. Her name is Cris, and she had found oes.org, and was looking for the webmaster (me). Seems that Cris had found a rescue dog in Minnesota but were having trouble adopting him. Cris and her husband Punky had rescued a Sheepie named “Sorry” in 1992, and Sorry had passed in April. Since then, they had been trying to adopt a Sheepdog in Hawaii, to no avail. There aren’t any available on the Islands, and mainland rescue organizations don’t want to adopt a dog outside of their areas, and certainly not so far away without a backup resource nearby. I replied to Cris with a somewhat form letter-like response: Ron to Cris wrote: Hi,
You’ve certainly reached Ron…, but I’m not sure how I can help you. Certainly the OES-L email list (info available at www.oes.org (community section, I think) currently has the largest reach of sheepdog crazed people (like us) in the world. The forum at oes.org may be helpful, but if time is of the essence, the OES-L is tops. If there are other people you need to contact, you can try the contact lists at oes.org or at neoesr.org, but there are not rescue contacts for Hawaii or Minnesota. Perhaps a neighboring state. My wife and I are traveling around the country in our motorhome right now, so communications and internet access can be spotty to say the least, so it may take a day or two for us to be able to respond to emails or postings. All that said, I will be very happy to help in any way that I can, so please let me know how. Good luck, Ron I felt for her situation, but how could we help? So, I hoped that my message would point her in a beneficial direction, and put it out of my mind. I didn’t even bother to tell Joan about the email. Cris responded that she was desperate! There was this dog she found on the Petfinders website. The dog was located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, his name is “Winston” and she is in love with him! Cris has won over the agency, Second Chance Animal Rescue in White Bear Lake. Although Second Chance is very concerned about the distance, they have essentially conditionally agreed to place Winston with her, provided that Winston doesn’t have to be placed in quarantine in Hawaii. Hawaii is a rabies free state, and they intend to keep it that way, with very strict quarantine requirements. However, Hawaii is trying to find solutions that can maintain their goal while reducing the stress on people and on their animals. To that end, Hawaii has just (June 30th, 2003!) enacted an option in it’s quarantine program that requires veterinary care stateside for four months, and provided that and a rasher of other requirements are met, physical quarantine in Hawaii will be waived. She needs a four month foster care stateside for Winston. After reading this plea for help, and re-reading her original message, it dawned on me that Joan and I were in western South Dakota, and that our travel plan from here was to go to travel east then south into Iowa, then north to Minneapolis, where we hoped to visit with some friends replanted from Boston. We were planning on being there in about 5 days. Where is White Bear Lake? A suburb of Minneapolis, of course. Time to talk to Joan. We decide that if we can work it out, we’ll help. More to follow. |
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| awwwwwww I loved reading this story!
Way to go Joan and Ron! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out well for Winston and all parties involved. Do keep us posted. |
| The story continues.
Winston has quite a story. One day, his owner decided that she was going to list her house for sale, and contacted a Realtor named Penny. Penny visited the home, met the homeowner and began a walk around. She noticed a closed door to a laundry room, and could tell there was a dog in there. She asked to see the room, and, reluctantly, the owner agreed, and opened the door a crack. The Realtor was blown back by the odors emanating from the room, and there was Winston submissively looking at his visitors. The Realtor expected the owner to greet the dog, or show some sign of affection towards him; instead, she just closed the door. Shocked at what she had seen, Penny immediately decided to help Winston, but she found herself in a difficult position: She wanted to get information about him, but not make the owner suspicious about her motives. Cleverly, Penny asked the owner: “How can a busy woman like you find the time to care for your dog and horses, too?!?” The owner explained that the dog was trained to live in that room, and that once in a while he was let out into the garage. For the last 4 years, he’s been locked in a laundry room. It was described as a small room with a cement floor and a small braided area rug. In that room he lived; He stayed there, he slept there, he ate there and he did all of his “business” there, too. Penny decided to save the dog, but how? Get the listing, and get the dog. Unfortunately, the owner decided not to list her house, and Penny couldn’t get poor Winston out of her mind. A little while later, Penny finds the house listed on the market through another agent. Time to spring into action! A friend of hers, in the market for a home of course, also happened to be a veterinary technician. She made arrangements with him to go see the house. Of course while she was there, they had to look at the laundry room, and while in there, might as well give little Winston a good looking over. Winston looked healthy, had water and food, so you can’t call the authorities, can you? Maybe with the house on the market, the owner might be amenable to another kind of offer. Penny contacts the listing broker, tells her that she has just shown the house, and tells her that she’ll never be able to sell the house with the laundry room in such a bad state. If the woman wants to sell the dog, that she would be willing to buy him. The woman asks for $100 and Penny agrees. Then the woman says that someone from work wants to buy Winston. Then that deal fell through, so Penny can have him for the $100. When she shows up, the woman ups the ante to $125. Penny The Angel agrees and leaves with Winston in tow! Next stop, Second Chance’s Vet! After the Vet’s, Winston is brought to Nancy’s home. Nancy works closely with Second Chance Animal Rescue, fostering many animals for them every year. Although Winston is physically fine, he definitely has some issues: 1) He is physically weak for a young 4 year old dog. 2) He is afraid of everything, even seemingly normal household noises. 3) When he is nervous or afraid, he pees. 4) He is a submissive dog, and when he is being submissive, he is nervous. (See #3 above) 5) He doesn’t know how to do stairs. 6) He’s not eating Nancy is very experienced working with rescue dogs, and Winston begins to flourish under her care. Nancy has 3 other dogs at home: an 11 month old Sheepie named Sara, a Great Pyrenees, and a Saint Bernard. Winston loves the company and is a very active guy, romping around the yard with Sara and the gang. Winston was afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so she works on that. Nancy gets very attached to Winston and his incredibly sweet personality, and she would love to keep him forever, but she can’t. More to follow. |
| I love this story. Wish it would work out htis way for al things ... even children. Life is not always as happy as it should be.
I will be keeping my fingers crossed for Winston, Nancy, you, and the lady, Cris, in Haiwii. I am not any any shape to help at the moment ... but I will be thinking of you. |
| What a story already! I am outraged at the treatment of Winston up until Penny rescued him and I am eager to hear more about his wonderful adventure with a loving family.
How great it is to see and hear about people who do the right thing without thought of personal fame or fortune. --Jessica |
| I want to hear more too. But Ron sounds like he's got a lot on his plate at the moment, what with being invovled in the rescue, having personal problems, and then the server problems. And he's chronicling his escapades at another web site. What an active couple!
I sure hope this has as happy an ending. Whenever you get a chance, Ron, we will be checking back every now and then. Are you guys going to be on the road for Christmas? That might be sort of neat. Just drop in on some relative when the weather gets bad. Right now we are having a torrential rain and Abbi will not go into any room with a window in it because of the lightenning. Feels like winters here for sure. I hope you are having a safe holiday season where ever you may be! Take it easy and we will just check back later. |
| I can`t even swallow..... to think that someone can be that indiferent to a sheepie!!! well any creature!!!.....please Ron as soon as you feel up to it tell us how Winston is doing...
Happy Hollidays everybody!!!! Vero. |
| The story continues.
We are now in constant communication about Winston. We are in contact with Second Chance Animal Rescue, and we are in contact with Cris and her husband Punky in Hawaii. Second Chance arranges for a vet visit for Winston to begin the requirements for the State of Hawaii. Joan and I leave Mount Rushmore, and head east across South Dakota. We decide to skip our excursion down into Iowa to expedite our arrival in Minneapolis. Good thing! Sandy from Second Chance has schedule conflicts, and would like to introduce Joan and me to Nancy, who is currently fostering Winston. It is now the Friday before Labor Day Weekend. Joan is having a difficult time finding a campground spot anywhere near Minneapolis/St. Paul. She finally locates a spot for Sunday (actually in our first choice campground) but nobody has a spot for Saturday. Joan looks up the local Sam’s Club (turns out that this Sam’s Club is at the other end of the street from the campground) but the town has passed an ordinance specifically prohibiting overnighting in parking lots. There’s another Sam’s Club not too far away, and after a pleading call from Joan and our agreeing to buy a chicken for dinner, the manager Brian, agrees to let us spend the night. (He would have let us stay without buying the chicken, as it is Wal-Mart corporate policy to accommodate RVers at Wal-Marts and Sams’s Clubs wherever possible. However it was Labor Day Weekend, so that’s why we called ahead.) We inform Sandy of our plans, and she graciously agrees to meet us there. We depart Sioux Falls, SD, bright and early Saturday morning. By mid-afternoon, we arrive at Sam’s Club and unhook the Tahoe (our dinghy). A little while later, Sandy arrives. We fill out some paperwork to become foster parents with Second Chance, and soon we are on our way to meet Nancy and Winston. We arrive at Nancy’s home in Minnepolis are introduced to Winston. He’s small for a sheepdog, about 65 pounds, but his markings are eerily similar to out dear departed Jake’s markings! But what a sweetie! His personality couldn’t be more different than Jake. As we mentioned before, Nancy has 3 other dogs at home: an 11 month old Sheepie named Sara, a Great Pyrenees, and a Saint Bernard. Not small dogs! Winston really loves to roughhouse with them, and gives as good as he gets. Pictures of Winston roughhousing in Minneapolis: Winston is the one "flying" towards the camera. 
Winston is the one that is winning against Sara the 11-month-old Sheepie: 
Winston is the one that's losing: 
It was a pretty fair fight. 
I decide to see how Winston behaves on lead, and take him for a walk. He walks nervously on the leash, timid of the surroundings. I decide to see if Winston will go into the Tahoe, and with just a little bit of coaxing, he jumps right in back, and up onto the rear seat. Excellent! Then I call him to come out, and – nothing. He won’t budge. I try giving a tug on the leash – nothing. I try for 15 minutes to get him to come out to me and nothing doing. Finally, I go into the back (BTW, while our Tahoe this is a two-door full-size SUV, I’m a big guy and it is somewhat difficult to get into the back seat. But it gets worse, read on.) to get him, pick him up, and carry him out of the truck. I managed to do this, but it was at the expense of a backseat filled with pee. Thank goodness for being prepared with the blankets. After my private excitement with Winston and the truck, we enjoy some more group time. Then we arrange to pick him up on Sunday afternoon and we say goodnight to Nancy and Sandy. We are very excited about Winston’s impending entrance into our family and nervous, too. Winston is very timid and suffers from nervous incontinence. Not the ideal pet for a motorhome but we figure we can deal with it. Worse comes to worse, there’s always doggie diapers! We find a local Petco and purchase a new collar and leash, bowls, food and treats for Winston and hurry back to the motorhome for a good night’s sleep in Sam’s parking lot. The next day is Sunday, and now we have reservations at the nearby KOA campground. We drive to the KOA and setup camp, then drive into St. Paul to meet friends, former New Englanders, at the Minnesota State Fair. We meet Li & Andy and their children, Ben and Hannah, in front of the Star Tribune booth, as prearranged, but we’re a bit late. Hellos and hugs are exchanged and we are off to see the Fair. We think the Big E in Springfield, MA, is big. The MN State Fair is ENORMOUS! There is food of every type available. The children especially like corn dogs. Ron tries a giant sausage on a stick and Joan is adventurous with a Gizmo. (It’s a spicy combo of ground beef, Italian sausage, marinara and mozzarella on a roll.) There are rides of every type imaginable, for big and little kids. Li and Andy treat us to a ride on the Skyglider, which glides us high up in the sky over half the fairgrounds. It is a marvelous way to end our day at the fair. We arrange to get together again tomorrow, and say goodbye. We have to pickup Winston! Winston and Nancy are waiting for us in her garden. Nancy’s own pooches are inside the house. Every so often, we will hear a loud yip or bark from inside, as if to say “We want to play!” Nancy finally relents and brings out Sarah, her 11-month old OES, also a rescue from Second Chance. Winston & Sarah go tearing around the garden and into and out of our laps. They are quite a pair! Winston seems to enjoy rough-housing with his foster sister. He is going to miss her, along with Nancy and her other dogs. They have bonded quite nicely during the past 2 ½ weeks of his foster care. Finally, it is time to say goodbye. We promise to keep Nancy updated via email reports and photos. Winston is off to a new adventure, learning how to be a Happie Camper! More to follow… |
| The story continues.
Our first full day with Winston is a rough one. Winston was kept in a cement-floored laundry room 24/7 for about the past four years, with an occasional release into the garage. He ate, slept and went to the bathroom all in the same small room. Going up and down stairs is a scary proposition for him (stairs are the entrance into our motorhome). He has no concept of what to do on a leash, despite taking him for round-the-clock walks. This leads to a surprisingly huge liquid mess throughout the motorhome as his bladder finally gives out around noontime. Oh, the joys of potty-training! After a couple of days, Ron sent a letter around to the list of people who had a hand in rescuing Winston. Ron to a Bunch of People wrote: Hi Everyone!
Winston is doing very well. Yesterday (Monday, Labor Day) Joan and I took Winston to Petco and used their “self-wash” facilities. Winston wasn’t a HappieSheepie, but he tolerated the ordeal and came out sparkling clean and fluffy. Winston has learned that the HappieCamper (our motorhome) isn’t the proper place to relieve himself. He had one single urination event, and a couple of dribbles here and there. He has learned to do his business on leash, though he seems to be more willing to go #2 than #1. We hope his in-home restraint continues, and his ease on leash improves. Winston has learned to enter and exit the motorhome with great facility, though on occasion he is still tentative. He still is quite skittish and easily startled by unexpected events, noises, his own reflection in mirrors, and even his own shadow, though this has reduced in frequency just over the last couple of days. Our training of Winston has been quite light for a couple of reasons: First, we don’t want to stress him, and secondly Joan and I have been just slightly under the weather. He learns things so very quickly and is EXTREMELY eager to please. He learned to do his business on leash by going for a walk and then being allowed off leash, and lavishly praised when he went. After that, he has defecated on leash every time. He learned to urinate on leash at our friend’s home as we were standing in their backyard. Suddenly he just began to go, and was lavishly praised during, and then following the act. In the praise after the act he was being held, rubbed and praised, and suddenly he just relaxed, as if to say: “You mean, it’s ok?”. Winston has made 3 escapes off leash into the campground from the motorhome. The first time, Joan was away and Ron opened the door with leash in hand expecting Winston to be tentative (as was previously the case) to come down the stairs. Apparently, he had resolved his fears of stairs, bolted out, went about 30 feet, turned and waited for Ron to chase him. He refused to come when called, and continued to keep about 15 or 20 feet distance until he decided that there was no anger, and he stood still as Ron praised him to pieces for standing still. Capture #1. The second time, Joan opened the door and he pushed her out of the way, and escaped to the campsite across the path, and stood awaiting Joan to accompany him. Capture #2. The last time, the campground manager came to the door, and as Joan answered, out went the dog. With the campground owner’s “help” in his golf cart, Winston was scared all the way down into a large fenced field (where he had/has been working the art of being off leash and coming when called) and driven cutting-horse style back into Joan’s arms. Capture #3. He has been around varying numbers of people in many different situations: The store/grooming gallery, parking lots, campgrounds walking around day and in the dark of night, and visiting with friends of the ours (and their two fairly well behaved dogs and children). He has met lots of people and a small number of dogs and has gotten along with all of them very well, though he is a little too excited and overwhelmingly friendly to the smallest of dogs. When visiting with the friends, the children were rolling down the very large hill behind the elementary school and running around. Winston charged towards them twice (both times from quite a distance!) but the children stopped their activity before he reached them and he just slowed and walked up to them. This is pretty typical behavior from an OES, and we don’t think he would have injured them had they not stopped, but exuberant dogs and rambunctious small children are a volatile mix. On the first day we took possession of him, Winston DID seem to have some stiffness in his hind quarters. This has disappeared, and Nancy’s assessment that it was extreme exercise related is probably accurate. Sometimes he still is slow to enter the motorhome, but we don’t believe this is pain related but instead is apprehension. The question in our mind is: “Is this due to arthritic pain or sore muscles, or some combination of the two?” Winston does not like to eat kibble dog food. We have tried doctoring it with several enticing substances, all of which are selectively picked out or lapped up, and when he is not able to do that, frequently he will get some of the kibble in his mouth and put it on the floor next to the bowl. He seems extremely interested in human food, (food for humans, not biting the hands that feed him!), and does in fact eat just about anything other than the kibble. We have tried several types of kibble. Reluctantly, we are planning on feeding canned Alpo (our friends use this for their dogs, so I took a piece and fed it to Winston by hand and he ate it.). I will be speaking with Chris and Punky to see what their feeding preferences are (something I probably should have done already anyway) and based on that conversation will devise a plan to wean him off of the canned food to the kibble, or not. Unfortunately for us, the amount of kissing has reduced quite a bit. We enjoy nice slobbery kisses, but it may be that this was a nervous response from Winston. We’ll see over the next few days and weeks… Today Joan and I are starting to feel better, both with Winston’s ease and with our colds. We are still undecided if we will be leaving this ideal (for dog training) campground tomorrow. More to follow… |
| All I can say is WOW!
I feel like I'm in the middle of a really good novel or movie and I have to wait until the next one comes out to find out what happens!! I'm waiting in anticipation! Thanks Ron and Joan for the update and I can't wait to hear more "Winston" stories. Keep up the great work! |
| We all agree with Marianne. It's like this great book! We will be reading the next updates as soon as we can. We should have gone to bed already as is, but I guess we are night owls.
Thanks Ron, we read for a bit more than 30 minutes! And will eagerly read the next installment. (I had to explain what cliff-hangers were to Angie, just to get her to go to bed). |
| Ron has anybody evertold you that you and Joan are truely angels, or at least as close to it as I have heard. |
| The story continues.
Friday, September 5th, we bid adieu to KOA St. Paul. Our intrepid GPS system routes us through downtown St. Croix. Looks like a neat place to visit with all sorts of little shops and cafes. In just a few short miles, we are in Wisconsin. Winston is becoming a world traveler! (At least now, he can say he has crossed his homestate boundaries.) We are bound for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan via state highways, mostly on WI Highway 8, a more scenic route than the interstate. However, it does limit our camping options. We are both still dragging our feet, so we don’t want to drive more than 200 miles today. Joan picks the town of Tomahawk and a campground called The Outpost for our nightly destination. We arrive at The Outpost around 5:30 pm. It is one of the naturally prettiest campgrounds we have found. It is nestled along Lake Nokomis in a mature forest preserve. They offer boating, fishing, swimming, a small sandy beach, a bar (a first among all the campgrounds we have visited) plus the usual facilities. The bathrooms are old but clean. The only true negative is that it is a cash only operation. No credit cards. Winston proves to be quite the ladies’ man, enchanting young and old alike. He is especially quite the hit with a trio gathered round a campfire. We later learn their names are Deb, Kim and Nancy, up from Green Bay for a weekend of fishing. Winston receives quite a few rubs from these gals throughout the weekend. Saturday: Winston has developed quite a fan club and we did not get much sleep, so we book a second night’s stay. The Outpost has over 200 sites and we explore a good number of them along our walks. This is definitely a hidden gem of a campground. Sunday: We say goodbye to Winston’s campfire girlfriends (also known as the Cappy Hampers) and head eastward on US 8. US 8 turns into US 2 East. Not far from the town of Thompson on US 2, Winston gets his first taste of the beach on Lake Michigan. Winston is not a natural beach bum, being very skittish about the waves. He finally joins us in the Lake about ankle-deep. Winston definitely prefers the dry sand to the wet water, at least right now. Winston contemplated the water, with reassurance from Joan. 
Winston in the water, unnerved by the waves and unhappy with the wet. 
Later that night, we leave Winston alone in the motorhome for about 20 minutes and go for a walk. When we head back he’s barking. This isn’t a good thing in a campground. Nobody complained, and the next time we left him alone he didn’t bark. Monday we visit Niagara Falls. Winston is an incredible hit with everybody. He put his front paws up on the wall along the falls, and really seemed to enjoy being the center of the universe around the touristy Falls. We find a quiet spot in the grass across the busy street from the falls, and spend some time hanging out there. 
Don’t worry, I digitally removed his leash and collar from the picture! 
We make what was a small mistake in finding parking in the middle of the commercial hubbub of the Canadian side, parked at the curb right outside of some scary attraction. To our amazement, it really didn’t have as big of an effect on Winston as we had thought. The next 3 months were spent like any other Foster Family and their dog – we had good days and bad days, we learned all about his idiosyncrasies, he tolerated ours. We trained him to eat kibble (mostly), he trained us to never say “Give me your paw” over carpeting. He was a real trooper as Joan and I spent a lot of time visiting healthcare facilities, with Joan and I passing as ships in the night for 6 weeks, and Winston being handed off between us every morning in the parking lot. He was a real comfort to us when we needed it. We comforted him when he needed it. It was an even trade. More to follow in the next topic, here's the link: "The incredible story of Winston, part 2" |
| Love the photos. While they are downloading we read and re-read, so by the time we are sure we are following the story the photo is waiting for us! I never have time to digitally edit, but taking the collar off would make Abbi look better in more than one of her photos.
He looks a lot like Abbi, except the white on his ears. She doesn't like giving us her paw either! What a handsome young fella. Cannot believe anyone would lock him in a laundry room. |
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