Winston before and after.

Winston's heritage is unknown; some side with my contention that it's Corgi/Spaniel, others suggest Basset and a few other things. We've even toyed with the idea that he's a totally new breed, the miniature St. Bernard.

As of this weekend, he was a long haired, stinky bastard, that is for sure! After his last summer cut mid-July, we'd let nature take over and his coat kept getting longer and longer and longer... I held out for a long time because he's SO cute, and SO soft and SO cuddly... but he was beginning to look like a huge dust mop, and I was finding hairs around the house that were longer than mine! So off to the groomer he went. He returned perfectly trimmed, hair about 1" long. He's like a little fur seal, I'd dare say even cuter, softer and cuddlier!

And so pissed off when we went to the groomer, let me tell you. That boy hates going to the groomer, but they all fawn all over him, and gush about what a good boy he is. (And they've done this while passing other dogs to their owners with not so much as a tidbit of what they lavish him with.) These photos don't do it justice, but here's a before and an after.