UncleJesse: Shit, RIP Bandit.

gettheledout: RIP

Ridgerunner: I was only 9 years old when my mother received a phone call, hung up, and proceeded to run through the house screaming. I thought something awful just happened, like an injury to or death of a close relative. It was neither of those, and to me it was nothing other than a call from some guy named Burt Reynolds wanted to buy our dog and invited us to meet him at his ranch in Jupiter for an afternoon. But to my mom, he WAS somebody and I can't recall a time when she was any happier than that day. We were moving and could not take our Dalmatian, Penny, with us. All we wanted was someone to love her as much as we did. Penny struck gold. You see, Burt had a fascination with the Dalmatian, he loved them and had several. We took Penny up to his ranch, met Burt, who showed us around and there were acres upon acres of land for Penny to run around with the other Dalmatians. It broke my heart leaving her there but I knew we couldn't have provided her a better place to go. But that didn't help me not miss her, it was heartbreaking. A few years later, in a school magazine, there was an article on Burt and a picture of him and Penny together! In the article Burt referred to Penny as his 'favorite'. I wasn't surprised, for all those years she was my favorite too. My Mom on the other hand, she was happy with this arrangement because for about 4 years after that. Burt would write and send her an occasional letter and included autographed pictures. The first series of pictures were from his series 'Dan August', a Quinn Martin Production (I've always wanted to say that...LOL). Mom was going through a tough divorce at that time and those letters would always lift her spirits and make her day. Thank you Burt, not only for your movies, but for giving our pup the best home when we couldn't and for making my mom happy. True story. Bandit is 10-7.