The Three Bowies|-

Bowie 2,3,1.

Bowie #2

It is 2003 and I am residing in the Mexican Beach town of Sayulita with my ten year old Danish American daughter, Zoey.

My art gallery/home is located across the Street from Chocobanana coffee shop and La Hamaca Gallery on Avenue Revolution.Today my former location is occupied by the Huichol Gallery.

My gallery/home is named 'Big Daddy's Small World. This name for two reasons, first for my daughter Zoey, and also that I believe it is indeed a small world and the appreciation of art is a connection without boundarys.

Zoey and I reside comfortably in the bedroom and kitchen area in back of the business. The backyard is a vibrant garden. All is well.

One busy high season day on Avenue Revolution in front of the gallery, I see a teenage girl with asmall funky looking mutt crossing the Avenue. Suddenly the pooch breaks free and runs erratically across the street towards me, a car heading directly for it!

I wave frantically for the man at the wheel of the car to stop, luckily he does, but the pooches body is pinned somewhat beneath the front left tire.

I ask for the man at the wheel to back up, which frees the poor little guy who is traumatized with fear. I carry him over to the young lady and hand him to her. She is frantic, but ecstatic at the same time.

She then tells me she is soon to leave Mexico and cannot take the little pooch, who is named Bowie with her and she then asks me if I would be interested in an adoption. I of course said yes, after all that just happened it seemed it was meant to be somehow.

This is a small funny looking dude, and he is filled with fleas and basically not well, so Zoey and I take him to the veterinarian the next day and get him squared away.

He becomes dedicated to me and only me, guards the home/business as if he was a Rottweiler, and will not let me out of his sight,which was quite endearing I must say.

Eventually, Zoey returns to Denmark and her mom, Anna. The off (very off) season comes and I decide to close the business for good. It was not much fun without Zoey and her friends being around anyway, especially during low season..

However, I make a tentative agreement to start a new business with Hamaca owner Marco. It will be a bar/restaurant to open in six months when high season comes, and it is to be adjacent to his new art gallery beneath his residence on the river.

I make arrangements with a Mexican family I am close with to take care of Bowie, as my off season planned travels in Asia make it impossible to take him with me. The family has two young children who adore Bowie, and the restaurant experienced parents will be my restaurant employees on the river when I return. I leave them food and funds for Bowie's care.

I then return to Thailand, then explore Cambodia,Burma, Laos. FinallyI go to Bali, where I start my art business for a few months before my planned return to Mexico.

While in Asia I had been informed early on by the family by email that Bowie initially refused to eat for a week after my departure.
Fortunately he was now fine, eating, and all was good!

Time passes traveling and eventually all contact was lost between me and my Mexican family and also Sayulita Bowie #2. Sad to say, not too many days went or pass by now without me thinking of my best buddy.

Friends later told me that the family had left Punta Mita for parts unknown. I did not return to Mexico for many years, because of other business interests.

BOWIE # 3

I return to Mexico in 2018 and I end up residing in San Pancho. One day I decide to volunteer at Entreamigos, a community youth center, I am sitting on a sofa opposite the front desk when suddenly the staff behind the front desk is pointing at me for some reason. The reason is that a small funky looking Bowie double has followed me into Entreamigos!

At first I thought it was my Bowie as he surely looked like him or so I hoped, but too many years had passed so it could not be. This little guy was also a mess, fleas etc. so I took him to the veterinarian and get him fixed up. I hesitantly put a notice in Entreamigos about the dog. Whoever this pooch belonged to was not taking care of him.  Luckily for me and for the pooch, there were no responses, so I now am the caretaker friend of Bowie #2, maybe #3.

A year flies by and I am down at the Plaza and a Mexican young man comes up to me and politely in perfect English tells me that Bowie#3 is his! I freeze not knowing what will come next, but next comes something unexpected. The young man tells me he has known I have had Bowie for a long time, but seeing that he was healthy and well cared for he decided it best he say nothing to me for Bowie's sake, as he could not afford to care for or feed him. I parted with a new friend, what a special kid, really. Bowie #2 is in love with the world, but is nowhere near the one-man dog Bowie # 1 was, but so full of life and love for all it's just as endearing.

Bowie #1 MAYBE -

The Bronx A long time ago, I am about four or just five years old. My family is residing on Odell Street, a dead end street. Mom , Dad and my younger sisters Susan and baby Marie occupy a small apartment directly across the street from #PS 106. Our very small  apartment is also adjacent to a park and playground.

Life for me is wonderful. There was no traffic because of the dead end, so the street was used for punch ball, roller skating, hide and go seek, Johnny on the Pony, you name it.

In the summer there were two fire hydrants which more or less were our community pool. Not only that, we have a small pooch at home. His name I do not remember, in fact had no memory of he or she at all for many years. Then one dreamy night when I was in my fortys, boom it all comes back to me, except for his name. My mom has let me walk our mutt in front of our small apartment building, I proudly do so, a big responsibility. As I begin our walk a teenage punk walks by and for no reason whatsoever kicks my dog! The dog breaks away from me and chases him. I can see that kid trying to climb the fence to PS 106 to get away from my dog. My pooch nips him in his ankle! In my new memory of this incident I see myself the next day standing in our apartment while my mom argues with a policeman who is there to take the puppy away . She argues in vain. That is all I remember.

My feeling is that his name must have been Bowie. maybe there is an after life.! Hope so.