13/03/2008 – 21/08/2014
a.k.a. little gentlemen, Winzoroo, petit ourson, big bear, big guy, the king
Winzor came into our lives only 8 days after we lost our first dog Bo-D. We fell in love the minute we saw him that first night at the breeder in Windsor Ontario. He was 8 weeks old and the smallest of his litter living in a small house with young kids running around. He was hiding under a dresser, seemingly afraid of the kids. We picked him up the next morning and started our 10 hour road trip home.
When we got him home the first thing he did was look for a hiding place, all he could find was a foot stool so he curled up under it and went to sleep. He soon realized that nobody was going to step on him here and got over the need to hide under something. He was already well behaved and understood when we talked to him. He was such a little gentlemen.
Winzor was a playful puppy but mostly just wanted to be with us. He loved going for walks anywhere and especially in the forest. Winzor loved all animals big and small and would approach them just to say hello. The skunk was not so amicable. He would never hurt a fly, literally, even when he’d catch a deer fly that had just stung him he would spit it out and watch it fly off. He fell in love with the neighbours kitten which was the same age as him. When the neighbours moved a month later and asked us if we wanted the cat, Winzor gave us his waging tail of approval and Kreamer and him became buddies for life.
Winzor grew real fast reaching adult size by the time he was 7 or 8 months old. But he did not stop there. He kept growing taller and getting heavier. This fast growth most likely contributed to his elbow dysplasia which required major surgery on both front legs between the age of one and two years old. He never complained.
During his second leg recovery, he rescued a robin that had fallen out of its nest and was minutes from being lunch to a neighbours cat. We kept the bird in our garage until it learned to fly. First thing Winzor would do in the morning was go to the garage to check on his new friend Wizzy. The bird really liked him and would hang around with him, and even land on his back. He missed him once we took it to the bird sanctuary.
The operations and arthritis were taking its toll on him, he seemed to have lost some of his joy of life. Except for his daily walks he did not want to play anymore and would just lay around the yard. He would get exited when he saw the neighbours dogs or when we went to the dog park, so we decided to get a second dog. We got Bochi, an 11 week old puppy full of energy. This got Winzor going again. They became inseparable buddies playing, going for walks, exploring, and just being happy hanging out together.
Winzor always used to get very hot and would lay down in any water or mud puddle he could find, or lay on the air condition duck in the house. His legs could no longer handle 2 km walks to the nearest pond so we decided to dig a 40 foot pond in the backyard. Now Winzor could cool down anytime he wanted. Every time we came back from a walk he would head straight to the pond for a swim. Him and Bochi were happy just staying in the back yard on hot days knowing they could go for a swim any time they wanted.
Winzor was big! Weighing 135 pounds during his last few years, his head at the height of a door knob and a 21 inch neck. His bark was deep and loud as you would expect from a dog that size. He was intimidating to anybody approaching us or entering the house. He just wanted to protect us. With us he was just the friendliest teddy bear, always smiling with his beautiful eyes and ears, ready to give us the biggest kiss with his huge tongue. He was always the first to greet us when we came home with such joy and love, with his big tail waging and his tongue hanging out, rubbing his head and body on us making these happy sounds. No matter how bad of a day we had or how mad we were at something, as soon as we saw him all our troubles melted away. Just being in the same room with him brought us joy.
Even though our yard was not fenced in, Winzor could always be trusted to remain close by. So he always could go in and out of the house as he pleased. He loved to just lay in the shade or in a snow bank watching the birds, protecting them. The birds could sense that he was not a threat and would often land very close to him. Even though he normally walked pretty slow, when he saw or smelt a cat in our yard he could run pretty fast and you could hear the sound of his big paws hitting the ground. Needless to say the cats heard that too and ran away as fast as they could. But when he would catch up to one of them, he would just smell it and walk away knowing he had done his job chasing it off our lot.
We loved Winzor so much, we did everything we could to make his life as good as it could be. When he started having trouble with his legs we built him ramps, even one in the middle of the living room. We carpeted the floor. We took down our bed and slept just on the mattress so that Winzor could get on and off easier which is the bed that he slept on all his life with us. Winzor knew we would do anything for him and he paid us back in love ten times over every day. Even in pain and awaiting the final injection while laying in our laps, he was still giving us kisses, thanking us both for being there for him on his last day.
We definitely miss Winzor a lot and will for a very long time. But we have so many good memories of him, too many to mention here. As a friend once said, we have more photos of our dogs than most people have of their kids. Click on the link below to see photos of Winzor’s life with us from that first night we saw him at the breeder.