Winston Jones, standard Schnauzer, Homeward Bound favorite, is the young furry son to Charles and Mary Katherine Jones. Still newlyweds, they celebrated their 3rd anniversary this past December! Both have strong roots in Oxford. Mary Katherine grew up here; Charles’ parents are both from Oxford and all of their their grandparents are still here Oxford. That’s quite an extended family presence! Charles and Katherine both had pets named “Winston” as children which made the name choice for their first pup together obvious to them.
Charles is the owner of Jones at Home, a furniture and home interiors store on the North side of the Square, and Mary Katherine is a full-time business and accounting instructor at Northwest Mississippi Community College. A mutual friend working for Charles helped make their connection. Mary Katherine’s walks with Charles and his then companion Corgi, Merlin, were among her favorite dates in their early years together. Merlin quickly became her step-dog, he was a light in their lives and they loved him to pieces. He tragically died of leukemia in 2015, at just 3 years old and they, especially Charles, were devastated. It took 3 years before Charles decided he was ready for another dog and said he wanted to experience life with a standard schnauzer. Mary Katherine was all in and in early 2018, began the search. Along came the handsome and energetic Winston! He took some time to settle himself into the Jones home. Mary Katherine and Charles were a little worried. He was a wild child! And even 2 years later, he still has only 2 modes: play mode and sleepy mode.
Winston loves his ball. Anyone who has a ball obsessed dog knows this drill. He will always bring it to anyone near or lying around, and drop it right by them. Just in the case they have forgotten it was available to play with. He is a loyal boy and certainly agrees with his parents sentiments about Oxford. Winston loves supporting local businesses and people watching. You can spot Winston and Charles at Uptown Coffee each morning. He occasionally gets to “say hey” to his favorite people at Ace Hardware. One day, en route to Ace he and Charles drove by the Spaw and he cried when they passed, surely exclaiming he wished it was his day to visit his Spaw friends. On nice weather weekends, Saturday breakfast at the Oxford Canteen is a fun outing for the whole family. And of course, he is the “shop dog” at Jones at Home, where he is a greeting ambassador for incoming customers. Sometimes, he really excels at this job. Stop by and see him!
Walks around Oxford are still the family’s favorite thing to do together. Mary Katherine knew when she came back to Oxford to attend Ole Miss after a brief move to Memphis, that she was coming home for good. She and Charles Plan to stay right here and grow old together just like their parents and grandparents before them. Thanks for Sharing your sweet boy with us! We look forward to many more years of good times and stories about Winston.