Coupled with Evil

Labradors have no place here, unless coupled with evil. Anastasia is very proud of her labrador/devil mix named Arbat. And it takes someone special to find a place in her heart for a spawn of Satan. Don't you love it when an otherwise attractive beast gets caught in an unflattering pose (I know you do, you tabloid readers)?

The history and pedigrees of Satan are well-known to most of us, so I thought it might be a bit more fruitful to delve into the background of the labrador retreiver. Contrary to its name, the lab doesn't come from Labrador, but from Newfoundland. Newfoundland was home to some small water dogs, and when bred with the ursine Newfie (breed name Newfoundland), you had St. John's Water Dog, the precursor to our modern-day lab. That all took place in the 18th/19th centuries.

Labs are known for the athleticism, endurance, intelligence, and companionship. My childhood dog was a black lab, named Pilot. Some of my earliest memories are of his enormous tail, which was capable of knocking down small children and clearing off coffee tables in a single swipe. That tail was also involved in some of my earliest nightmares, too.

Thanks for the photo, Anastasia (and Arbat, by extension).