Today's post is a very special one! My boyfriend Andrew and I went to visit his lovely brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Dana in Boston—and their so-cute-it’s-unfair baby miss Ellery.
We took Amtrak up to their beautiful home in Dorchester for the weekend—and I brought my camera and some tennis balls in case I could sneak away to a local dog park at some point during the weekend.
When we arrived for Ellie’s first birthday that Saturday, we met many new friends—including Matt and Dana's neighbors (and friends), Janelle and Tim. We also got to meet their adorable son Leo. To my further delight, coming to crash the party later on was their giant, meatball Pit Bull, Winston!
Winston is an American Staffordshire Terrier.
I was lucky enough to catch a small interview with Janelle and Tim. I couldn't help myself—I saw Winston come and ambush little Leo with kisses and cute, body wiggles and I almost fell out of my chair.
Today's story is one of my absolute favorite stories to tell. I had coincidentally recently watched, The Champions, a documentary about former American Football player Michael Vick's Pit Bulls and some of their long journeys. Especially after this documentary, I had wanted to capture just one of the many stories of how amazing Pit Bulls are.
So lucky me, this one fell in my lap!
Winston was a shelter dog rescued by Janelle and Tim from Paws New England in 2012. They actually had good friends who rescued a Pit/Lab mix from the shelter, and volunteered there frequently. As soon as their friends heard they were, "open to a Pit Bull", they started laying it on thick—showing Janelle and Tim pictures of a very cute and stocky Pit Bull sitting regally with a little bow tie on.
Winston was just six months old when they first adopted him—he was 25 lbs. then, and now he has doubled in size at 55 lbs. I can only imagine how cute he was then! He's almost five years old now—and I can tell he's like a big brother to little Leo.
I asked if Winston was always so great with Leo—and they said yes, but they definitely had to prepare him for a new tiny family member. Winston had already proven to be fantastic around children—he played a lot with Janelle's friends kids and was great around new people.
While Janelle was pregnant, they prepared Winston as much as they could. The first few nights around the time Leo was born, Winston stayed at Tim's sister's house, but as soon as Winston came home, there was a definite adjustment period:
"We did some training with him to get him ready. The only real problem we had, was that we hadn't played the sound of a baby crying for him—so for the first few weeks when Winston was back in the house and Leo would start to cry, Winston would start barking to let us know the baby was crying. Winston knew the baby was in distress, and his bark was almost to say, 'hey guys! the baby is crying! The baby is crying!' which we obviously knew. But literally that was the only problem, him barking because he was so concerned about the baby."
Janelle continued with a very sweet story about their companionship the first few weeks after Leo was born:
"The first couple of nights that we were all home, Winston was up with me around the clock while I was nursing and tending to the baby. He would stay at my feet, awake at two or three in the morning. Finally, by about day four, he looked at me like, 'Are you serious? Is this how it's going to be? I can't do this!' And then Winston stopped and started sleeping through the night again. It was fine for Winston, but I kind of missed him when he did that. I missed my bud!"
After hearing this, I had mentioned that the Pit Bull breed used to be known for helping nanny babies because of their incredibly sweet and loyal nature. (Don't believe me? Check this article out!)
Apparently he's not just great at helping watch Leo, but he's also a great vacuum cleaner for when Leo's food hits the floor.
"He likes anything baby food. Anything Leo is willing to drop from his high chair. It's like a new game!"
When baby food isn't available, Winston LOVES cheese, bacon, and avocado. His daily treat is a hollow Kong dog toy full of peanut butter. Like us humans, Winston enjoys lots of fatty people foods!
While casually chatting, I asked my favorite question when I do these entries, "If Winston had a motto, what would it be?"
"We joke a lot of the time that we call him, 'The Mayor'. First because of his name—Winston inspires a lot of people to think of Winston Churchill. He already came with the name, of course—but he has a very personable face and attitude. If you bring him to the park, the first thing he does is greet all of the people sitting on the benches and lick their faces. If we walk by neighbors—or Matt and Dana's— he will stop and see if they're home. I think his motto would be, 'Vote for Winston' to the effect that I always joke he would run for office. He already does the, 'shakes hands and kisses babies' sort of thing. People know Winston at the park and they don't know us. Between us and the dog walkers, he's got the city covered."
Thank you again to Janelle and Tim for letting me take pictures of Winston and your beautiful family!
Name: Winston, a.k.a The Mayor
Favorite Toy: "He loves his orange Chuck it ball with blue stripes. He will skip his way to the park with it!"
Activities: "He loves to run, play and loves to swim. He loves going to the park, and he gets a long well with most other dogs."
