An Evening With the Dog

Need I say more? :-)

Yes, probably, as I know some of you are waiting with baited breath to hear about my evening with the one, the only Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Ok, this all went down on Monday evening. My sister and I drove into DC, and we were a little bit early, since I was so freakin' excited to go. We got there at 6:15 for a 7:30 program. So, since we had already been there for the debacle with She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (her initials are MT if you missed my earlier post on the matter), we knew where the stage door was. So we went around the back of the theater, since they have a real nice courtyard and it's conveniently located right outside the parking area for the limousines. We are sitting there, and doesn't a big black car roar up, park, and the back window rolls down halfway and cigarette smoke starts shooting out the window. I saw the strangest tuft of blond hair and I knew. It was the Dog. So we just sat there, pretending to be cool, and Dog sat in his limo, smoking.

Finally, at 7:00, we'd had enough cat and mouse and decided to go inside. I bought some books, and was promised that Dog would sign them afterwards. We were told he didn't want anyone taking pictures (fear not, as you can see, I took them!).

We found our seats-fifth row center, yeah baby!--and sat there, getting more and more excited. Well, I was anyway, I don't think Judy was too excited till it started. So then, all of a sudden, in the corner, they start screaming, and we look over and it was Beth!!!!! She was peeking in the door to see the crowd. The whole place erupted and she waved and ducked back behind the door. After that, all the cameras came out and all bets were off.

A few minutes later, the auditorium went pitch black. People really started screaming--it was like a rock concert. A single spotlight shone on stage and from behind a podium, Dog leaped out. It was pandemonium. Screaming, clapping, everyone was flashing "hang loose" to Dog who was striding back and forth in his boots and flashing it back, it was great.

So everyone was flashing pictures, but finally it calmed down after a few minutes. And he said he was there to talk about his hunt for Andrew Luster and his subsequent tussels with Mexican law enforcement since he had been cleared the previous week--this of course set loose another round of hollering and screaming.

He told the whole story of deciding to go after Luster, what happened, etc. and how he came to be in the jam with the Mexicans. He talked about his crooked lawyer, about being in trouble with his son and his brother, and about all the hell he went through to catch that guy in the first place--for instance, did you know Dog's electricity got cut off because he didn't have the money to pay the bill, thanks to the money he spent to catch Luster?

Of course, all us ladies went absolutely bananas when he mentioned Leland, which prompted Dog to say, "You ladies all love Leland, don't you?!" (insert frenzied screaming) "Ladies, I made that baby!" (Even more screaming) He then proceeded to make fun of Leland the whole night--but in a funny and cute way that conveyed how much love he has for his entire family.

He talked for an hour and a half and ended with an anecdote in which he said how much he hates people remembering him as an ex-con. He said it really got his goat when he would see "ex-con" in front of his name after he caught Luster and in articles about him even after he had been 20 years removed from that experience. Then he said one day, he was coming in and Beth was reading the papers and she told him to look. He saw his pictures and there was the word "Con" in front of his name and he started yelling, and Beth moved the paper a bit and the article actually read "Icon". And then right on stage, Dog started crying. We were all cheering for him and his turn in fortune.

So he decided to open it up to Q&A and brought Beth out on stage with him. It started out pretty well but soon devolved into "Will you sign my book?" so finally, Beth had enough and took charge. She grabbed the microphone and told Dog, "You sign books, I'll answer questions!" and pointed him over to the couch. He went and sat. Then, she looked at the audience and said, "Anyone who wants a book signed, get against that wall!" It was crazy! Everyone just stood up and did as she said! She was certainly very commanding.

So then, Judy says to me, "You go and get the books signed, I want to ask a question." She gets in the question line and I get in the book line. Sadly, I couldn't get close to Dog, and had to hand the book to his manager, but it was totally understandable--it would have been worse chaos than it was. So I got our books signed, and then I went, took the above picture of Dog, and found Judy in line. I decided to sit in the second row, right on the aisle, so I could be a stone's throw from Beth, and I waited till it was Judy's turn.

She was great! She said, "First, I want to thank both of you for treating us like human beings tonight and signing our books, unlike other events I've been to when they won't even talk to you!" (Take that, MT! HA!) So Beth nodded, and Judy asked, "I wanted to know what the writing process was like?" So Dog actually answered her question!!! I have no idea what he said, but I was so excited that he took a break from signing books, disobeyed Beth, and answered MY SISTER'S question!!! Then when he finished, Judy looked at Beth and said, "My sister's shy, but I'm not, so I'm hoping you'll sign my ticket stub for her." And Beth said, "You want him to sign it?" And Judy said, "No, I want you to sign it." So she did!!!!!!! She handed it back to Judy and Judy shook her hand and then Beth asked her where I was, and Judy pointed to me and Beth asked how long we'd waited for our tickets. So I said we got them on line (miraculously, I found my tongue) and she said we were very lucky and thanks for coming.

Oh my God. Because you know Beth is one of my ass-kickin'-female heroines.

So I have a book autographed by Dog and the ticket stub autographed by Beth.

I went home walking about 15 feet above the pavement with a sore throat. It was an AWESOME night. So much fun, and so interesting and different. I love, love, love, love, love, love, loved it!!! And then of course to watch the Dog special last night was a fitting end to a great evening with the man himself. I hope he comes to DC again some time soon!