He also loves his little sister, Gracie, who we rescued and nursed to health and happiness after being abused by multiple families when she was two years old. The two quickly became inseparable friends. (Gracie, who is also an English Bulldog, is now nine years old). Then there is JJ! He is a five year old French Bulldog. JJ is full of life and has nothing but love to offer. He is a sweet and adorable Frenchie that is easy going and loves everyone. He and Winston are BFFs (best friends forever) as Winston loves to groom him and take on the responsibility of caring for him as if he were a puppy and Winston was his mother.

    Our bullies, who are our children and are treated that way, are happy, loving and mean the world to us. We strongly believe when you adopt an animal it's no different than having a child in the sense that you must care for that precious animal for life! It's not a 1-2 year commitment or "put them down" when they get sick (would you do that to a child?), but a lifetime commitment. We are all animals created by God!

    Our little family was so healthy and happy until Monday, March 30, 2009. We left for a business conference in Chicago a few days earlier and returned to find Winston in good spirits as always. Unfortunately, the next day he started vomiting out of the blue and over the course of two days, his vomit changed from yellow to green to brown and foul-smelling. Honestly it smelled like death (as the vets confirmed as well). Our usual vet didn’t have the time or personnel to see him (which came as quite a shock), but a second vet who we had seen before took him in right away. Unfortunately, this vet had to wait for labs to make a diagnosis and made a temporary diagnosis of pancreatitis, something that would turn out to be incorrect. By now, Winston had become severely dehydrated, although he had received IV fluids to help alleviate this.

    They sent Winston home with us with the intention of returning Friday morning April 3 for more fluids. By now, Winston hadn’t eaten anything since the beginning of the problem on Monday. About one hour after we got home on Thursday April 2, Winston vomited 5 times in the span of 45 minutes, prompting an emergency trip to the 24-hour emergency vet in Durham (affiliated with N.C. State University ’s excellent vet program).

    It turned out that Winston, apparently while we were away, had swallowed a piece of a Nylabone-brand toy and it had become an obstruction in his small intestine. (The Nylabone was full size and new, so it had no reason to break...Winston's teeth are not strong enough to break it). A barium swallow showed that nothing was moving even past his stomach and he needed immediate, emergent surgery to remove the blockage. His life hung in the balance at that point. Our surgeon, Dr. Grafinger, who has lovingly cared for Winston throughout his tough time, successfully performed the enterotomy (intestinal surgery) on Friday morning.

    Winston continued to receive fluids and medicine on Friday and Saturday as he recovered from his surgery. He was still refusing food, but by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, the emergency clinic felt he would be okay to come home.

    At home, he was still recuperating as you can imagine, but also continued to refuse food. We thought we had a breakthrough on Sunday around 2 AM when we managed to get him to eat some of his favorite foods – boneless, skinless chicken, peanut butter, and even a few Cheez-Its (see picture! =). Unfortunately, this would be the last time he would eat for several days.

    Winston's pain continued to increase throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, and by Monday morning, his wound site was leaking blood and was very inflamed. It actually worsened significantly in just a couple of hours, prompting an immediate return to Dr. Grafinger. Winston had developed a serious complication, but everyone was unsure of what exactly it might be. He had a 103 degree fever and severe cellulitis at the incision site, but this could mean anything from a fairly simple wound infection to a septic belly and intestinal leak (the worst-case scenario).

    He was put on round-the-clock antibiotics and we continued to visit him, though he didn’t seem to know really who we were and he still refused food. He was still in a lot of pain even on powerful pain medications given via IV, but the inflammation seemed to be improving thanks to Dr. Grafinger and the other vets’ and vet techs’ dedicated care.

    We knew he could need surgery at any moment and had been warned that he could lose his life. We had a 50/50 chance if this happened or a 0% change of survival if he didn't start to show any signs of improvement with or without more surgery. However, all the signs showed he had a better change of survival with more surgery if he could survive the anesthesia (which is very dangerous for bulldogs, especially older ones). Needless to say we just held each other and cried for days. The vet told us we needed to consider the alternative and at what point we would allow that, but we knew we could not let this precious sunshine in our life simply die because he swallowed a piece of a toy. We didn’t know how we would possibly afford more surgery, or even more care from day to day, given that our resources had already been exhausted from the previous surgery, vet visits, and critical care. Having an animal stay at a hospital is just as expensive as when a human is in the hospital and it adds up very fast! All we have to rely on are prayers & we ask everyone we can to please pray for him.

    On Thursday April 9th, for the first time in 10 days, Winston voluntarily ate his first bowl of dog food (at the hospital even!). We hope to bring him home soon and will once again begin the process of recuperation. All of his other organs and systems continue to function well, and we're confident he’ll be back on his feet and going cow-tipping again (see picture! =) in no time. God is so good and Winston's fate is and will be in His hands always.