The Great Bandido!

I had such a wonderful weekend in the Dub Dub - filled with the bestest of friends, side-splitting laughs, some very tasty fried pickles, Whitman baseball, crazy hair salon antics, my favoritest 1-year-old (who is now walking!!), and of course, LOTS of wine. 9 bottles to be exact. :-)

I also left the Bandido in Walla Walla to spend a few weeks with my friend, Kent, until I'm there again next month... just because he missed him oh so much. LOL! It's so cute that he has a little bromance with my dog.

I can't really blame him, though. He really is just about the best dog ever.



I mean just LOOK at what he puts up with!!!

The budding bromance of Kent and Bandit...

Just before last Memorial Day weekend last year I was panicked looking for a dog sitter - mine had double booked herself and the kennel was full, and I was leaving for AZ in two days! Kent, being the gracious and talented eavesdropper that he is, overheard me and said he was going camping, but that he would take him only as long as he wasn't a whiney, wimp of a dog.

Although Bandit didn't do so well with the first impressions (he doesn't like to be watched while he drinks and made Kent sit in the truck with the door closed), he quickly won Kent over...

During one of their morning walks, Bandit was bounding through the field and trees, chasing a rabbit or squirrel or the whatever, got distracted and caught his ear on a barbed wire fence (Kent texted me a picture and I just about died laughing. Bandit was getting a "this is not your backyard camping trip" education). It was a big enough gouge that Kent decided it needed "minor surgery" (aka cut it off with his pocket knife). Of course Bandit's like "Dude, that kinda hurts, but it's cool, cuz we're camping!!" at which point Kent was like "Alright, I guess this dog is kinda cool".

And then there was the Gracie incident... Kent's mom, Joyce, has a Spaniel of sorts, Gracie, and they were all on this camping trip too. Well, Gracie is a runner. If she's let off lease, she'll bolt and be all like "See ya suckers!" Well, at some point during the weekend, Gracie found her moment and took off, with Kent and Bandit running after her. At one point Kent stopped, looked Bandit right in the eye, told him to "go get 'er!" and Bandit all but saluted Kent, more than happy to do his part retrieving his new girlfriend. According to the story, he rounded Gracie up like cattle, blocking her way if she tried to move, and wouldn't let her go anywhere until his favoritest person ever, Kent, got there. :-)

And then Kent leashed Gracie to Bandit for the rest of the weekend, and she was mortified.

Kent also taught him how to jump off the dock into the lake like a real dog (as opposed to slowly and awkwardly falling in) and to not bark or whine while left alone in the the truck bed.

And they discovered the endless entertainment factor that comes with his weird fettish for towels (he'll gently take it right off your head, drag it a few yards away, and then roll around with it) and chasing flashlights.

Needless to say, I'm fairly certain Kent and Bandit will have a blast together. I will definitely miss him, but I'm excited to take advantage of this dog-free freedom!

Happy hour anyone?