Neked Boy. The Bald One. The BaldOne Brother (play on the Baldwin Brothers). BanditBoy.
These are all nicknames for my soon-to-be 13 year old Chinese Crested. I've had Bandit since he was 18 months old. He travels with me on all my vacations.
Every year we visit Friends in NOLA and have walked in the Barkus Parade many times. At least once a year we travel to Northwest Flordia for my High School Reunion Dinner and Family visits. He's been to NYC and Maine a couple times. And we've driven most of Route 66 and coastal Hwy 1 up to Oregon.
We don't just travel. He's also attended Bark in Park and cheered the Atlanta Braves multiple times. During our first game he was spotlighted on the Jumbotron and I was picked to play a trivia game for a trip.
We've also attended several Texas Rangers Dog Day games. During one of those games I received a text from a friend saying they saw Bandit on the nationally televised game. I was not aware he had made it on the jumbotron. During another game I was interviewed by an out of state newspaper reporter for the Durant Daily Democrat.
We haven't limited ourselves to the majors--we've also attended Baylor University baseball in Waco and Jackalopes Ice Hockey in Odessa. I'm still waiting for Cowboys and Saints to host a dog event...hint, hint.
During two different Barkus parades I was interviewed by local radio and tv stations. The best tv interview actually happened on the parade route, but the interview was preempted when the Saints won the big game that evening. I didn't mind because the impromptu celebratory parade in the Quarter was AWESOME!
One of my favorite events though was competing in The Ugly Dog Contest in Petaloma California. I told the judges we came to lose and prove to the nonbelievers that Bandit is not ugly. And we accomplished the goal of losing because Bandit was truly the cutest dog there.
On the social front, Bandit had a DoggySpace page before I had a Facebook page--he even hit 100 friends before I did! And he's recognized even when I'm not--even hundreds of miles from where we met a "fan." At festivals and street fairs I frequently hear, "there's Bandit!" A little girl we met during a rest area potty break walked down the street of a town a hundred miles away a day or two later and I over heard her excitedly exclaim to her mom, "there's the girl with the dog!" The Mom, who had had not been with the Dad and Daughter, said "Oh, honey it's not." I recognized the little girl, so I interrupted their conversation and told her Mom I was in fact "the girl with the dog." The little girl was thrilled I remembered her.
Before Bandit became part of my life, I never talked to strangers. But as I answer questions about the Chinese Cresteds, and educate strangers to the breed with "personality plus," Bandit, my Neked Boy is stripping away the vestiges of my normally intoverted shyness.
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