By Anna Holton-Dean
From his docile, sweet disposition, you would never know that Winston had once been treated so cruelly, so inhumanely. “When he gets excited, he jumps around as if he were dancing,” his owner, Lisa Lewis, says. “He loves to be hugged and petted. Like most Boxers, he loves to be with his family.”
His scars, however, tell a different story. Winston’s tragic, yet uplifting, journey began in 2008, when then-Medical Director of Tulsa Boxer Rescue, Cris Amos, received a phone call about a Boxer that had been found wandering, along with others, in North Tulsa with severe burns covering 90 percent of his back and continuing down his legs.
“After leaving the shelter, I transported Winston—the name I came up with in the car because he needed something noble—to the vet clinic that TBR uses for emergencies,” Amos says. “Their opinion was a caustic substance (acid) had been poured on his back. He looked more like raw hamburger than a dog.”
Despite his mistreatment, Winston was trusting of Amos’ intentions. “I have found that most Boxers, or any other dogs,” Amos says, “really don’t hold a grudge, even though he was so brutally abused. I really think he knew we were there to help him.”
Amos immediately went to work finding Winston a forever home, where he would be nursed back to health and loved. He remembered that a family member, Lisa Lewis, was interested in fostering, “but not a young, active dog.”
“I suggested a medically-needy dog, and she was all for it,” he says. “All I had to do was wait for the right dog to come along—Winston was the right dog.”
Amos checked on Winston every other day in the beginning as he healed, and the Lewis family doted on him unconditionally. TBR allowed them to adopt him (on their oldest daughter’s 16th birthday), and even waived the normal adoption fee due to the scope of the injuries and the time the Lewis family had put in bringing him back to health.
Stay-at-home mom (and dog lover) Lewis remembers taking care of Winston in those first critical days. “It took six to eight weeks for his wounds to heal completely,” she says. “After that, we were careful to keep a shirt on him when he was outside, so that his new skin wouldn’t get sunburned. Now, his skin has toughened a little, and he isn’t outside that much. The only thing I do now is spoil him by massaging the skin daily and putting Vitamin E oil on it when it looks dry.”
Three and a half years later, he continues to heal, growing in new hair all the while. “I don’t think it will every completely grow in over his scars, but it has grown in far more than anyone who saw him ever thought it would,” Lewis says. “He is so handsome that we don’t notice his scars anyway!”
Now, Winston is just as much a member of the family as the four Lewis children, and everyone pitches in to care for him. “Winston [technically] belongs to our oldest daughter, Amanda, who is now a freshman in college,” Lewis says. “Winston and she are very close, and he misses her living at home a great deal. Amanda loves animals and spent time volunteering for Tulsa Boxer Rescue. Winston is very protective of her and doesn’t like it when other male dogs try to get close to her.”
These days, 11-year-old Caleb has taken over Amanda’s duties of caring for Winston and helps Lewis take him to donate blood; 10-year-old Devyn helps bathe him and takes him for walks. And the youngest member of the Lewis family, 4-year-old Wyatt, learned to stand with Winston’s assistance. “When Wyatt was a baby, Winston would stand over him while he was sitting on the floor,” she says. “Wyatt would reach up and grab Winston’s jowls and pull himself up to stand. Winston just stood there and let him do it. They spend hours in the back yard playing ball. My husband, Chris, is a pilot, so he is out of town half of the time. When he is gone, Winston is the man of the house. He follows me around the house all day and protects me from the trash man and mailman.”
From a victim of abuse to a loved family pet, Winston is one “lucky dog.” And being that Boxers are the universal donors of the dog world, Lewis and Amos decided donating blood would be an ideal way for him to “pay it forward.”
“When word of Winston hit the news media, many people donated money to help with his medical bills,” Lewis says. “One group of coworkers brought him a shirt and some toys to play with. What better way to express gratitude for the people who helped Winston than to help others.
“Winston was a little nervous the first time he donated blood, but he has gotten used to it. The actual donating takes about 15 minutes. There are no restrictions on the dogs after they donate, and they are able to give once a month. He gets treats afterward, and he has a special tag on his collar that identifies him as a donor.” His tag reads, “I give so others may live.”
Tracy Hendrickson, a medical technologist and owner of Companion Pets Veterinary Blood Bank, says donations from Winston and other donors have helped save puppies and adult dogs with problems such as Parvo, rat poisoning, cancer, and flea and tick anemias, just to name a few.
Hendrickson says one of Winston’s personal donations was used to save a dog that was hit by a car and needed emergency surgery.
Companion Pets Veterinary Blood Bank is unique in that there are very few animal blood banks across the country. So most vets must have blood shipped, or they have donor dogs on site.
“We have a donor pool of over 200 dogs that we are able to draw from throughout the year,” Hendrickson says. “All dogs are typed and disease-free before units are released. The profits are donated back to rescue groups since we operate as a non-profit business.”
Lewis is proud to say Winston is one of those 200 dogs giving a second chance to others. “As you can tell,” she says, “we love Winston, and I could talk about him for hours!”
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