Yes, I know that you're here because you think this is Linda O.
Johnston's website, and I'm just along for the cyber-ride. But
just because both she and I are both lawyers, and we adore Cavalier King
Charles Spaniels, and each happen to own a tricolor Cavalier named
Lexie, doesn't make us twins.
No way.
So who am I?
You know, I've been asking myself that lately. But not too hard.
The thing is, did you grow up knowing exactly what you wanted out of
life? I did.
Or at least I thought I did.
Okay, here is the lowdown: I'm Kendra Ballantyne, age thirty-five,
a lawyer. Happily single, since my taste in men sucks--at least
until lately. Maybe.
I've been practicing law for nearly ten years, and I am--was--a civil
litigator with one of the most prestigious firms in Los Angeles: Marden,
Sergement & Yurick. A damned good litigator, one who won nearly
all my cases. I love my life…or at least I did, till shit started
happening all around and--worst of all--to
me.
I grew up in L.A., led a boringly normal childhood. I'm the
daughter of two successful lawyers who split up as soon as my brother
Sean and I were both in undergraduate school and no longer needed daily
parenting. My dad is happily remarried and lives in Chicago with
his wife and my multiple half-siblings. My mom's a happily
unmarried lawyer in D.C. These days Sean's a motel mogul in
Dallas. And I followed my dream and became a lawyer.
Only those childhood dreams of mine never suggested I'd get my license
to practice law suspended. Especially not for ethics violations.
I mean, I'm not perfect. I've brought home the occasional pen or
pad from a hotel where I was staying, though I draw the line at towels.
I speed on the freeway and surface streets and pray I don't get
caught--and have been known to charm certain officers of the law when I
do get pulled over. I sometimes park longer than the posted times.
You know, the normal stuff that people do to test the system. But
really unethical? No way.
Yeah, tell that to the California Bar Association. They're the
ones who lifted my law license. And that after a hearing in which
I was permitted to present evidence in my favor. I even hired my
own lawyer to represent me. And lost… to the very system of
putting on a case in front of the triers of fact and law that I believed
in so wholeheartedly.
Not long ago, I bought an absolutely gorgeous showpiece of a big home,
on the San Fernando Valley side of the Santa Monica Mountains. And
did I ever have a view from there--lights at night, greenery, buildings
and smog during the day--perfecto! Of course it came with a
mortgage… and, fortunately, it also came with an apartment over the
detached garage. That's where I live now with Lexie, since I can
no longer afford the life of luxury I led when my law license remained
intact. I've had to rent out the main house just to support the
mortgage.
Without living the life of a super litigator--with its commensurate
more-than-comfortable remuneration--I needed an income. That's
when I turned to my good friend and owner of the Doggy Indulgence Day
Resort Darryl Nestler for advice--and then turned myself into a
pet-sitter.
And damned if I didn't love it as much as I'd adored being an attorney.
So that's it, at least until my pet-sitting clients started dropping
dead just before I was scheduled to drop in and take care of their
animals. Dropping dead? Hell, they were murdered.
Did I turn to my favorite pet-sitting client--and more--Jeff Hubbard, a
security consultant and private investigator, for help? Kinda,
but--
Why don't you just read
SIT, STAY, SLAY if you're really
interested in what happened? It's a bit of an invasion of my privacy,
but this Linda O. Johnston's damned good at that. In fact, she's written
more books about me. I still don't have my law license back in
NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FERRETS,
but by
FINE FEATHERED DEATH
it's finally been restored. Even so, I love pet-sitting, so I've kept it
up even as I started a new phase of practicing law. And
MEOW IS FOR MURDER
tells about another aspect of my life.
You know what? Each one of those darned books is a murder mystery. Yes,
you guessed it. I've become a murder magnet. And Linda O. Johnston
spills all.
Maybe one of these days I'll write a book about her…
