My Border Collie Mix Save My Life...Twice
I lost my first criminal trial. My client was accused of something Ohio calls felonious assault. The state indicted him for trying to hit someone with a car and a brick. In retrospect, I should have pushed him harder to plea and apologize to the victim. With that, he’d have gotten a couple of years or possibly probation. Instead, he went to trial, rolled the dice, and lost. For a night of drunken partying, he went to jail for seven years.
The guilt was overwhelming. My solution was to drive over to the animal shelter on Cleveland’s westside and…adopt a dog. There were two available for adoption. A seven-year-old sheepdog mix, Shep, and a nine-month-old border collie mix, they’d named Sandy.
I chose Sandy. A week later she came home spayed and sick with kennel cough. In all my years of having dogs, I’d never experienced kennel cough and freaked out. I didn’t want to lose a trial and a dog in the same month. Fortunately, she was easily diagnosed and all was fine-ish.
My new dog was two things that probably should not coexist in a canine, she was very smart and very willful.
Willful meant she ate when she wanted, pulled away and ran down the street at the drop of a hat, and barked at perceived threats. Smart meant she learned how to turn on the TV at night and loved Jenny Jones on loud.
Smart meant that she saved my life…twice. The first time I was driving to my first home in Ohio. I’d stopped at a stop sign at the corner of Lynnfield Road and Chagrin Boulevard. Not seeing a single car, I was ready to hit the gas in my Camry and move forward until my dog lost her mind in the back seat. I’d taken her on a very long walk in one of the Cleveland MetroParks to get out all her energy and to keep her off the couch watching TV. I turned around to see what in the heck could be wrong when a car zoomed by well above the speed limit. Had I pressed the gas, I may not be here to write these words.
Years later, something similar happened in Los Angeles. I was at a stoplight. It turned green and I was ready to cross Ventura Boulevard and head south toward my house. This was probably a decade after that first incident. We’d been to Griffith Park this time. I turned to see if she was tangled up in the leash or had something else wrong, and she just glared at me. When I turned back to the road, a car was running the red light. My foot came off the gas and brake as I inched forward making sure the coast was clear. Again, I drove the few minutes home adrenaline pulsing thinking that the line between life and death is very thin. My dog crossed that line at fourteen years old.
And my former client, the one who inspired the dog adoption? He came out of prison after seven years, and three years later, he went back in, this time for ten years for drug trafficking, aggravated robbery and a weapons charge. He’s out now and on probation for another three years. Hopefully, he’s out for good. As for me, I never lost another trial again. No other clients went to jail on my watch.
Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort and Nicole Long Series of legal thrillers. She is also the host of the podcast, A Time to Thrill. When she's not writing crime fiction or interviewing brilliant creators for her podcast, she's in a yoga pose, knitting, or reading. Aime splits her time between Los Angeles and Budapest. Before turning to writing, Aime practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio.