Christine Pickard was on her way to do some afternoon shopping at Tanger Outlets when she made a fateful decision at the end of the expressway to speed up and pass the car in front of her before their lanes merged.
Moments later, a New York State Trooper pulled out behind her, sirens blaring.
Little did Pickard know, the speeding ticket she was about to get would change her life.
Instead of receiving any points on her license, Pickard was sentenced to 40 hours of community service by Riverhead Justice Allen Smith. “I’d never heard of such a thing,” Pickard recalls now, more than a year later. “I thought it was ridiculous.”
Pickard has always been an animal lover, so she decided to fulfill her community service by volunteering at the Bideawee animal shelter in Westhampton. She had never worked with animals before, but she’s been the doting owner of many cats over the course of her life. Volunteering with animals, she figured, would be the least painful way to put this speeding ticket behind her.
And that’s when something amazing happened.
Pickard, who had established an accounting career in the car dealership industry over the course of 30 years, found that her true calling was something entirely different.
“Getting that ticket and going to help those animals made me realize that I wanted to work with animals instead,” she said.
Forty hours of community service came and went, and Pickard still kept volunteering at Bideawee. She took every class they offered, learning how to work with both cats and dogs of almost every aggression level.
When there were no classes left to take at the shelter, Pickard went back to school. Several months later, she emerged with her vet technician certification from Eastern Suffolk BOCES.
And now, more than a year and a half after her speeding ticket in April 2014, Pickard is running her own petsitting business.
Keegan’s Kritters, named after Pickard’s beloved grandfather, is a fully insured in-home petsitting service with an emphasis on caring for animals with special needs. Many of Pickard’s own cats have had health issues over their lifetimes, and she has always had difficulty finding a petsitter capable of managing their medications and health needs when she goes away.
“In my life, it seems like I’ve always ended up with cats that have special needs,” she said. “I’ve dealt with that a lot over the years, so that’s one of the reasons I wanted to start this.”
Working with animals, Pickard says, has brought “new meaning” to her life.
“When you’re working in an office, it’s like being in a box all day,” she said. “Now I’m regretting that when I got out of school I didn’t do something with animals. If it wasn’t for that judge, I wouldn’t have done any of this. This has really changed my life.”
Last month, Pickard decided to write a letter to Judge Smith to thank him. And last week, the two reunited at the Justice Court to take a picture together.
“That community service was the best thing someone could have done for me,” Pickard said. “It opened a whole new door to where I was meant to be.”
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
