If you clicked on this article, you’re probably wondering why there was a load of people in downtown Owensboro this past Saturday. Nothing bad, thankfully – it may sound made up, but people were actually gathered for one local woman and her two dogs – ESPECIALLY her two dogs.
Who is Debra, and why is she viral?
Debra (I wish I had her last name; her socials only list her first name. She should keep it that way, it’s lowkey cool and mysterious) is a local resident of Owensboro who went viral on TikTok for her various animals, but especially her three dogs: Lida Bida Boda Butt, Emerald Jade Green, and Chippy Dippy Dopey Dub. (If I botched any of the name spelling, I apologize)
At the time of writing this, her most viral TikTok has just under 3 million likes with over 10 million views, and her 2nd most viral TikTok has just over 2.5 million likes with over 20 million views. Many of her other TikToks have around 1 million likes with thousands, if not millions, of views. Debra herself has gotten over 225k TikTok followers.
What’s making Debra so viral, though? Aside from her warm personality, if you watch any of her most popular TikToks, you may understand why. Her dogs probably wouldn’t be featured in a pet food commercial, if you catch my drift. The three of them (especially Lida Bida Boda Butt, who seems like the oldest one at 22 years old) have gotten a lot of mixed reactions from viewers. Some say that Lida is one of the cutest dogs they’ve ever seen, while others say the complete opposite.
I’ve seen comments on Debra’s videos ranging from “Sooo cute” to “I wonder what Lida’s experience was like on Noah’s Ark.” I can’t lie, the comments have had me dying. Lida seems to be getting the most attention out of the three (which may not surprise you). Some of my favorite comments on TikToks featuring Lida:
“I can feel her trying to take my soul through the screen”
“She doesn’t look a day over 2000 🥰”
“I said her name three times and all of my furniture started floating”
“she invented fetch”
Debra doesn’t seem very bothered by the comments making fun of Lida, thankfully, as she stated in a comment: “y’all can make fun [of her] if y’all want to I don’t care it don’t bother me I love her and that’s all that matters”
So, how did the meetup in downtown Owensboro happen?
I can’t say for sure where Debra’s idea to host a meet and greet originated from – what I do know is that she posted a video one day announcing the meetup spot in downtown Owensboro for her meet and greet happening at 2:00 PM, Saturday, the 18th. That video’s where I found out about the event (and also where I learned that she’s from Owensboro, lol), although she may have posted about it previously. Needless to say, I had to go to the meet and greet to see Lida Bida Boda Butt with my own eyes.
My experience at the meetup
Leading up to the meet and greet, I wondered if there was even gonna be a considerable turnout. I saw people online say that they were gonna show up since it was close by – I even saw people say they were gonna drive multiple hours to see Debra, but they could’ve all been joking for all I knew.
The first thing that I noticed once I got out of my car was how stupidly cold it was. Yes, I know, people complain about how bipolar it is in Kentucky all the time, it’s nothing you haven’t heard before – but seriously? It was 80s, sometimes almost 90° the week or two before, so why on earth was it wet and cold the day of Debra’s meet and greet? That was the worst possible curveball for me and everyone else who dressed for 80° weather.
Anyways, I got to the spot where the meetup was happening, and it instantly became clear to me that people weren’t joking when they said they were gonna show up. There was a large crowd of people circling what I could only assume was Debra and her dogs. It was impossible to see them with the number of people crowded around them, I almost wondered if Debra and her dogs could breathe in there.
Everyone was respectful, people were kind of just standing around and not pushing each other out of the way to see the dogs or anything like that. There were a couple of times where you could just barely see Debra hold up one of her dogs into the air, and when she did, everyone screamed and lifted their phones up to record. It was funny to think that this was just some local resident and her two dogs, you’d have thought it was someone from Hollywood.
My thoughts in retrospect
The Debra meetup was a moment I won’t forget. It’s super funny and awesome that a local lady could randomly blow up on TikTok and have it result in a big crowd gathering for the chance to meet her and her dogs. It was also really effective in putting Owensboro on the map! I remember seeing several different license plates ranging from nearby states like Tennessee or Indiana to states farther away like Georgia or Ohio. I also remember seeing a lot of comments from people discussing what Owensboro is or how far it is away from them on a few of her TikToks.
I hope this happens again! I’ve seen rumors that it might, I’m not sure if that’s been confirmed by Debra or not. If it does happen again, though, it should definitely be organized in a way where 1, Debra and her dogs don’t suffocate in the middle of a crowd, and 2, set it up to where Debra can interact with her fans a little more; many of the people who didn’t manage to get there early (like me and my friends) kind of had to watch from a distance and didn’t get to see the dogs all that much. Still a fun time though!
In the end, I’m glad that no one – especially Debra or her dogs – got hurt in the meetup. It was a respectful and wholesome gathering that a lot of people had a lot of fun with.
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