Winston, The Wonder Dog
a.k.a. "Sir Dumpcelot"
(December 24, 1993  -   August 17, 2005)

Pictured above is our Shar Pei, who we named Winston due to his resemblance to British Prime Minister Churchill. He was actually wearing the Telex headset as the photo was taken. He declined to "speak" into the microphone, however.

The story of acquisition of this fine specimen of wrinkled canine has a ham radio slant - At the 1997 Dayton Hamvention, I happened to mention to Dave, K3YX, that I would like to have a Chinese wrinkle dog as I always admired the unique appearance of the breed. Several months later, Dave called to tell me that his wife had discovered a Shar Pei that needed a new home, and the rest was, as they say, history.

Winston was 3-1/2 years old when he came to live with us. He lived to be nearly 12 (human) years old, but was slowing down considerably in his final two years. At one time, he would fall asleep by my feet as I was on the air or using the computer, and when it came time to shut down the computer, the tune that is played during the shutdown of the Windows operating system would wake him and he knew it was time to head upstairs with me.  Sadly, his declining hearing and vision during the last two years of his life limited his ability to interact with us as well as he once could. On August 17th I found him lying in his favorite spot on the cool ceramic tile and discovered that his time with us was over.

This particular dog was extremely gentle, rarely barked, and was a very loyal companion. His large snout did facilitate (and amplify) some strange noises that often originated near the air intake, and he could regularly out snore his owner.

The small plot of land where he is buried has been named "Winston Park".

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