Why would a federal prosecutor with a passion for environmental justice give up a brilliant career to go into private practice? Explains Manhattan attorney Stanley N. Alpert, "It gives me flexibility to write and spend time with my dog. I decide when I work, so I control my own time."
Nine years ago, Alpert was petless, and he found out how it feels to have no power at all. On the night of Jan. 21, 1998, he was kidnapped at gunpoint for his ATM card, blindfolded with his own scarf, and taken to a Brooklyn apartment, where he was held for 23 hours.
His captors ultimately spared him and dumped him by a roadside, but the story could have ended very differently, as Alpert wryly points out in The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, which was recently optioned by actor-producer Tom Cruise.
"I learned really great things from being kidnapped," Alpert says. "The things that you want to do with your life, you have to do right away."
That includes getting a dog, even if you think you don’t have time for one. "Having a dog was a pleasure I’d wanted in my life for a long time," Alpert says. A year after the kidnapping, he quit postponing dog ownership and adopted Phoebe, a mutt.
Immediately after his release, Alpert pursued his captors like the proverbial dog with a bone. But other animals dictate the structure of his book, which is divided in two parts, the first titled MOUSE and the second, CAT. While captive, Alpert is a helpless rodent. The minute his captors drive off into the night, the mouse morphs into one tireless hunter of a tomcat, helping police find the bad guys and bring them to justice.
Still, the canine is his favorite species. He takes Phoebe along on nature hikes, driving to the trail in their Volkswagen convertible. She even rates a mention on Alpert’s Amazon.com author’s page, where she’s described as "my cute mutt."
"Getting this dog was like salve on a wound," Alpert concludes. "She was my gift to myself."
