Bowser, is our eleven year old Black Labrador Retriever. Our yard is his kingdom , but unfortunately the destruction of our lawn became his pastime. For whatever "dog reasoning" went through his brain, Bowser convinced himself that he should not lift his leg to relieve himself in the backyard. Everywhere else he relieved himself like a normal male dog, but in the backyard, he seemed to think that this was a "bad dog thing". There was nothing we could do to convince him that it was okay to lift his leg in the yard, and trust me we tried conventional and very unconventional ways without any luck. As a result, Bowser killed all the grass in the backyard.

Over the years we have given up on trying to keep up with him in replacing the dead patches of grass with sod or seed. This consequently has led to a whole redesign of our yard with raised garden beds, a pond and slate pathways to accommodate Bowser and his unique habits. You might say he has ended up being our "garden team animator". Oh well, at least he's an inspiration of some sort and we don't have to mow any grass anymore ! Does this look like the face of a killer - a grass killer that is ???

Bowser takes the time to stop and " smell the peonies along the way". In the background is our gardenhouse, the false blue indigo plant and the weeping mulberry tree. It's incredible that he has only sustained one or two bee stings over the years since he seems to have the traits of a smell hound - he can't resist smelling the flowers, and he frequently does this with the bees still in them.

Bowser also loves birds ! The blue jays and chickadees will land two feet away from him while he is lazily sleeping on the deck and he won't stir. He's very protective of the birds and will chase any cat out of the yard when he sees them. Although he chases them, with our encouragement, he would never harm them. In fact, he turns into an "eejit"if the cat ever stops and confronts him. There was one cat, a couple of years ago, that sat down in front of him after the chase ensued, that was obviously used to dogs. This cat proceeded to watch him run around in circles around the yard, with which seemed like a look of bemusement, as Bowser tried to figure out what he was supposed to do next. The cat, after awhile, got bored, turned and went over the fence unhurriedly. Bowser, of course, maintained that confused and innocent Lab look that we are sure that he works on when we are not around.

Despite our fears that Bowser being a water dog, could potentially cause problems with our pond (i.e. jumping into the pond and destroying the liner) , we have had no problems with the "Bowse", as we fondly call him. He inherently knows "stay out of the garden" and seems to obey and recognizes that if we label a garden "a garden", then it is off limits whether it is a traditional bed or a water garden.

Bowser has his own dog bed that he drags all over the house. In the daytime he tends to follow the sun. At night he drags it upstairs beside our bed. He has never been allowed, nor has wanted to get on our furniture. Since he was a puppy, he has considered ownership of this dog bed his inherent right. We respect his right to his bed, and he respects our right to our furniture and our bed.

He is seen here with one of his favourite toys - a stuffed bear purchased at a flea market for 50 cents. Being a retriever, he loves to carry soft things around in his mouth and since he has never been trained as a formal hunting dog, he is obsessed with bringing things, that I guess in his mind , simulate a duck or rabbit retrieve. We'll probably find out that after he has gummed his bear to death, that it is one of those rare collector teddy bears worth a lot of money. But hey, could you separate this dog from his bear ... He's also big on shoes, newspapers, mail, toilet paper rolls and a plastic pink flamingo. Go figure! Our mail deliverer passes the mail and talks to him through the letter slot. If we are at home, he brings the mail to us, if not he piles it on his bed and gives it to us when we get home.

Although Bowser is an excellent, well behaved dog now, both in the house and in the garden, he was the puppy from hell ! As a pup, he did very bad things. His remorseful face tells it all. His garden exploits as a pup included destroying Dave's 100 foot kinkless garden hose by chewing it into five foot lengths, digging up shrubs and "trees" by the roots as we planted them, digging holes in the garden, methodically destroying plants, etc. The more fuss we made over any of these items, the more he was determined to get our attention. He doesn't do this anymore!

In the house he ripped up linoleum, ate doors, part of the sofa, ate bass river chair legs, doors, the microwave chord... the list goes on. But he turned into a wonderful dog, who still has a guilty conscience after 10 years when you say " Did you do that ?" He responds with this look.