Another Jewel in my Crown: Bowie

Latter-Day Saints are big into family history and into how their actions may affect future generations. The legend in the Laws family is that a General Authority relative used to encourage all his kids to have more children and used to celebrate the births of his grandchildren by exclaiming, “Another jewel in my crown!”

Well, I am pleased to say that I have another jewel in my crown. No, fools, not a grandchild yet (and no, I do not urge my children to have kids or advise on when to have them, unless they ask). Brayden and Lucia got a dog. Here’s Bowie, everyone.

A jewel, right? He’s a Portuguese water dog—the breed favored by the Obama family. Obviously, as both black and white AND a favorite of the Obamas, Bowie is woke, which was the sole purpose of Brayden and Lucia getting him, obviously. If you make war on woke, woke fights back. Ha!

Bowie is close to a year old. He grew up on a farm in Hawaii where they breed dogs and do other farm stuff. The kids named him Bowie because his farm name was Buddy, and they thought he would adjust to his name easier that way. Turns out, all the dogs on the farm are named Buddy. Bowie is an excellent name, of course, because it’s the last name of Texas Alamo hero and knife inventor Jim Bowie. So that’s the legend I’m telling Bowie—you’re named after a Texas legend and hero. Doesn’t matter whether it’s true—it will become true.

Bowie was house trained when they got him, so that was an easy adjustment. But he has been learning about all kinds of great things. Like air conditioning, for example. Once he experienced it, he found it glorious and saw little reason to exert himself or even be outside in the sun. Which of course means that walks, as most dogs know them, were not things he was that interested in. He found them hot; he found other people threatening; he was uncertain of other dogs and if not uncertain, he was certain he needed to befriend them and not walk further. Being a pleasant soul, Bowie objected to walking simply by sitting down. At one point, Lucia called to ask for advice because Dobby, also a lover of air conditioning, acted the same way when he was a puppy.

“How did you get Dobby to love walks?”

“I made him do them,” I said.

“But if he just lies down, what do you do?” Lu said.

“Well, in my case, I took him out to the woods, so my neighbors wouldn’t judge me, and I started walking. When he lay down, I just dragged his ass over roots and stumps until he decided it was a better idea to walk. And that was that. I don’t know. Maybe there’s a nicer way to do it you can find on the Internet.” (Don’t @ me—I’m not Kristi Noem. Dobby’s whole experience was maybe ten yards long.)

Lu looked up techniques, and she bribed him with treats, but one evening, he refused to walk home after walking a mile out from the house. No coaxing would work, Lu wound up crying, Brayden had to come pick them up, and a day or two later, Bowie got his ass dragged and decided that walking is a great activity. Sorry, Bowie!

Brayden works nights, and Lu is doing a couple of extra credits of schooling to meet CPA thresholds. When she leaves for school in the morning, Bowie has to go into a crate because otherwise, he insists on Brayden playing with him and Brayden needs to sleep at least a few hours. Bowie is, however, a mama’s boy. When Brayden gets up and feels like cuddling, well, Bowie clearly takes an L as the picture shows.

At the end of the summer, Brayden and Lucia will make their way east as Lu starts her job at Deloitte and Brayden starts an A&P program in Concord. They’ll stay with us for a time, and Bowie and Dobby will get to team up. Two crown jewels. Two ferocious wolves. Both working together to overcome evil . . . or just get the best spot next to the a/c vent.

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