This story has to start a few weeks before the event today. So, for about a month or so, I've been browsing through shows that might be of interest to me on Netflix Instant Watch (as I now have a Windows 8 computer, and therefore a Netflix Instant Watch app). I added a couple of Animal Planet series involving pit bulls to my list, because I had watched a documentary on pit bulls before and wanted to check out what similar things Netflix had to offer.
One of the shows that I added was Pitbulls & Parolees. I was hesitant to start a new show, and I didn't know what to expect. The show very quickly caught my interest, though, and I really enjoyed the ranch happenings plus the rescue missions plus the interpersonal drama. Pitbulls & Parolees follows Tia Torres and her rescue for pit bulls, Villalobos, and also the parolees she hires and reforms, missions to save endangered dogs, and conflicts among employees and her family.
As I was getting ready to go volunteer at the adopt-a-thon's first day today, I let my leash hang around my neck, and joked that I was like Tia Torres, because she is always seen in the show with a pink leash hung around her neck - you know, just in case.
The semi-irony of me saying that was that, when we pulled up a quarter after nine in the morning, I saw somebody that I recognized. Weirdly, it was as if I knew them just from the back. When they turned so I could see them, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was Mando from Pitbulls & Parolees, walking around in a "Staff WMR" shirt and helping to set up for the adoption event. Mando - Armando - was the first parolee (or rather, ex-parolee) that was introduced in Season 3 of the show (the only season on Netflix), and one of Tia's closest friends and one of the most featured employees on the show. I kept staring from the car, watching as he went from the big tent to the mobile home to the little tent and back. When I eventually went out to sign in as a volunteer, I was close enough to see his nametag, and my eyes hadn't lied - Armando Galindo, and up close it was undoubtedly the same guy from the show.
I had told my dad that I was going to talk to him, because it's on my bucket list to "meet a famous person." However, it is generally not my strong suit to initiate conversation with people, especially not total strangers, and especially not total strangers who also happen to be on my favorite TV show. Well, just going around walking little dogs, sitting at the main table, and perusing the tent for the big dogs, he would help me get a squirmy hyper dog into their kennel, or tell me how I could help volunteers give water, or smile walking past me. Somehow that felt better and more real than if I had stopped to shake his hand (like one girl did, with her family) and compliment his show, or ask for his autograph, or ask questions about Villalobos and what brought him to New Mexico. (Honestly, though, I was kind of "stalking him" in the main tent to get his autograph. If he's there tomorrow or Sunday, I will work up the courage to ask him. And compliment his show, too. It's my favorite show.)
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