STUART, Fla. — A criminal case involving 36 rescued border collies in Martin County is moving forward.
Paige O'Donnell faces 72 criminal charges — two for each dog rescued from her home. She was not present at her docket sounding Thursday afternoon in the Martin County courthouse, but I spoke with her attorney, Russell Ferraro.
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"At this point I can't really say anything on her behalf for or against her," Ferraro said. "We just got the discovery in the case yesterday. We're organizing it, going through it, and we'll take it from there."
It has been just under two months since Martin County deputies took 36 dogs out of O'Donnell's feces-filled home on Aug. 10.
The county condemned it days after the Border Collies were rescued. Ferraro said O'Donnell is staying elsewhere while the house is under repair.
O'Donnell faces an animal cruelty and improper confinement charge for each dog and has pleaded not guilty.
"Everybody's got a right to a fair trial and to due process," Ferraro said.
The next hearing in O'Donnell's case is scheduled for Dec. 1.
While the outcome of the case remains uncertain, most of O'Donnell's former dogs have found loving homes. According to the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast, 30 of the dogs have been adopted, five have gone or are about to go to animal rescues, and one remains up for adoption.
Alan Cale in Port St. Lucie and Colleen Tilley near Deltona each adopted one of the rescued border collies. Both say their new family members — now named Nadia and Leila — have had little trouble adjusting to their new lives.
"She's just has an endless amount of energy and just wants to expend it at all times," Cale said.
Cale said Nadia, named after a character from the show "New Girl," goes to work with him every day and usually warms up to new people after they offer her a treat.
"She's just has an endless amount of energy and just wants to expend it at all times," Cale said.
"When I saw where they came from, I expected a lot more of a challenge," he added. "She's curious. She wants to be out there and interacting with the world."
"There's no off switch; it's all go, go, go," Tilley said, as Leila raced back and forth behind her in her backyard during a Zoom interview. "It's really satisfying to see, actually. Just that she's— she's happy."
Tilley recalled how nervous Leila was when she first came home on Sept. 21.
"At first — like the first three days — it took her to be able to go out the doors— like when I opened the front door, she would run and hide under the bed," Tilley said. "Now she just runs straight through the sliding glass door, or into it."
Cale and Tilley both said their new border collies have taken well to training as they work to shed old habits, like jumping onto countertops.
"I think that's how they got their food," Tilley speculated.
When Tilley thinks about the criminal case against Leila's former owner, she wonders what went wrong. Tilley, who showed dogs with her family during her childhood, said she remembers O'Donnell and her outstanding reputation.
"(Paige) won everything. Like she had very well-bred dogs, very well-trained dogs, beautiful dogs," Tilley said. "And so all of us were just like, what happened?"
Cale revealed that he'd been grieving the loss of his beloved Border Collie, Jessie, who'd died from cancer a year before he heard about what had happened in Palm City.
"You just never know when the right dog is gonna come along, and this was the right dog," Cale said. "(Jessie) was the ride-or-die that would have gone anywhere with me — roaming the woods and getting into mischief ... And that's gonna be Nadia now."
"You just never know when the right dog is gonna come along, and this was the right dog," Cale said.
The Humane Society of the Treasure Coast says one Border Collie is still up for adoption.
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