‘He spent months hiding in the corner, too scared to be touched’: Cat loving shelter technician adopts a neglected rescue dog who slowly learns to trust his new pawrents and blossoms into a cuddle-obsessed companion

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Aug 23, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Dog rescues are usually not all too complicated, perhaps it is something to do with the delightful nature of our darling doggos, but when they are shown love after being neglected, they automatically light up, as though they were desperate to trust again. Which is what makes this story a little sad.

For you see, the doggo in question was adopted from a shelter as a pupper. But the home he came into was one of neglect, anger and consequences. Consequences that caused the poor pupper to react in ways that are unbecoming of a dignified doggo and way that were about to land him in very hot water if he got a third strike. Thankfully, this was also the point at which his poser pawrents had enough and surrendered him back to the same shelter he came from. Luckily, this is where the good guys step in to save the day. The good guy, or should we say woman, was a technician working at the shelter, who immediately brought out Winston's wonderful side and allowed him to be the wholesome, sweet doggo he always wanted to be. It is truly touching what some love can do.
 

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  • 01
    I work at a shelter as a tech. My husband made me promise when I started that I wouldn't bring home any more animals no matter what, since we already had two cats, and I am a cat person. But then Winston
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  • 02
    came in to the shelter. Winston was surrendered at 4 years old by people who had adopted him from my shelter as a puppy. Why? "He's a littlest" were the verbatim words spoken by the former owner.
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  • 03
    Before they bailed, they told us Winston had 2 bites on his record and had many other unreported ones. While checking him out, we found that he was missing all the hair on the back half of his back and most of his tail, he had a giant tumor on his back left
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  • 04
    leg, his ear hairs were severely matted and the ears were infected, his upper incisors were mostly ground down, and his toenails were almost curling into the pads. He
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  • Well, it is of little surprise that this doggo ended up back at the shelter, and honestly we do not say this at all, but is a good thing he ended up back at the shelter. From the sounds of it, this poor pupper was being treated terribly. Especially for it to so deeply affect his behavior. 

  • 05
    also did not give 2 s' s while we were doing all this stuff to him that normal dogs would not like.
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  • 06
    In fact, he was so easygoing that everyone wondered how he had ANY bites, reported or not. We called up Animal Control to get the full story. The same officer responded to both calls, and was able to give some context. The previous
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  • 07
    owners left him in the backyard whenever they weren't home. He had access to food, water and shelter, but most of his time was out there by himself. They ALSO left both of the gates to the backyard wide open, because they figured out
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  • 08
    he doesn't run away (to this day he "asks for permission" before following my husband or me off leash). So what happened was...he was by himself, chewing himself bald, and he heard someone coming up the driveway and ran out to
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  • 09
    greet his owners. Only it turns out, it was just a delivery person. To be fair, Winston has the eyes of a psycho clown ker any time he's not sleeping. I don't blame the delivery drivers for reacting to a m ---·'s looking dog running at them. I also
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  • 10
    don't blame Winston for bg in response to being pd. And as it turned out, I was told by the vet that removed the giant (benign) tumor on his leg that it's often caused by severe trauma...like being kicked.
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  • Holy moly that is just harrowing. How can you be so cruel to a darling little doggo and then on top of that go ahead and complain that the doggo has been causing trouble. Of course, he will strike back when stricken. Poor thing must have just been fighting to hold onto any semblance of a life.

  • 11
    Anyway, I quickly discovered how awesome Winston is. He will go up to anyone and just plop his head on their knee. If people want to hold him on their lap, that's fine too. Five kids want to come up and smoosh his face and give him kisses? Perfectly
    via _felisin_
  • 12
    awesome. He doesn't care about other dogs, no matter how intrusive they are being. He snuggles with cats. But it goes both ways. He doesn't care about food, or toys, or walking, playing, swimming, etc. Just sleeping in a comfortable spot.
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  • 13
    I knew he was the perfect dog for my husband and me, because we needed a super mellow dog that didn't need a ton of exercise, due to our work schedules. But the biggest thing for me was that a dog will be eu** d after 3 recorded b. es. I could not
    via _felisin_
  • 14
    let this amazing dog go home with a person who didn't understand him and might put him in a position to bite again. Like I said, my husband didn't want any more animals, but I managed to cajole him into letting Winston come to our house for an overnight
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  • 15
    stay. If he didn't get along with our cats, the roommates or the other dog, I wouldn't adopt him. If he chewed anything, had accidents, or ran away, I wouldn't adopt him. Guess what? He was PERFECT. My
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  • 16
    husband said the morning I was taking him back "Yeah we have to have him." We adopted him, and he was a great little dog. But he always seemed to think we were going to hurt him or abandon him. We gave him tons of toys, treats,
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  • 17
    beds, etc. He probably didn't like it, but I gave him special food, medication and baths so he could stop itching. I cleaned his ears out and trimmed his nails. Eventually, Winston got to spend all day on the couch watching TV, spending the evenings going on walks
    via _felisin_
  • 18
    and cuddling, then sleeping in the bed. But still, he seemed scared of us. I don't know what changed, but it was almost exactly a year from when we adopted him that his attitude shifted. Suddenly he would get excited and
    via _felisin_
  • 19
    do zoomies when one of us came home, or when he was about to go on a walk. Instead of just being in bed with us, he would prop his head up on a leg or arm. He started to nose poke to get someone to put their arm over him, or grunt when he wasn't getting
    via _felisin_
  • 20
    attention. Rolling on his back and snorting until he gets belly rubs is pretty common. I don't even know why I went on this rant, other than to say how much I love my dog, and how much I hope no one gives up on a shelter dog until
    via _felisin_
  • 21
    it's clear it's necessary. Winston is the best dog I've met, and I'm not just saying that because he's my buddy now.
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    Cheezburger Image 10545044736
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adopt months learn cuddle touch rescue dog reddit story scared technician slow pawrents neglect dog story companion trust animal shelter hiding cat lover obsessed corner
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