But at age 47, he was about to find his occupational nirvana, as an officer with Animal Control Services in the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office.
"There just has to be a higher authority watching over me," said a smiling Collins. "I can't believe I had this good fortune. The people I work with now at the county animal shelter are so amazing. The sheriff's department has brought great compassion and structure to animal control.
"It's a wonderful public service we're providing to make sure people are responsible for their animals. When I leave after a call to someone's home, I want the folks to feel good about the interaction.
"And what the staff at our shelter does, to get our animals there prepared for adoptions or foster care, is terrific. You're proud of what you do when you leave work each day."
His new wonderful life – "I can't wait to get home in the evening to my childhood home in Sunset Park, which I just bought from my dad, where my kids and about 10 others in the neighborhood are playing in the front yard" – didn't look so sunny a few years ago.
Collins had a massive heart attack at 45, and gloomily returned to work at his job at a local chemical company.
"... Every time I crossed the railroad tracks outside the plant on the way into work, I could start to feel the stress," he said. "I'd get into a sweat. One night at home, my son, who's only seven, told some neighbors, ‘My dad is lying down. He doesn't feel well. He never feels well.'
"That's when I knew to change: My legacy to my family wasn't going to be feeling miserable."
So even though he's slight of build, just 5-foot-5 and under 150 pounds, Collins finally relented to the advice of a brother and nephew at the sheriff's office and applied for work there.
"I knew it would be a wonderful career, but I worried about fitting in – I'm not exactly the enforcer or confrontational type," Collins said. "But when I went through the training, especially the physical part, people were so encouraging. Even other candidates cheered for each other. It was like a family. This was where I wanted to be.
"I was blessed because during the interview process, my interest and love of animals came through and I was hired in Animal Control. Can you believe it? I have an office and a laptop. And vehicle."
He also had some experience corralling wayward animals of all types, volunteering in the past with a Brunswick County wildlife rehabilitation group. Those moments top any risky encounters in his new role.
"Yep, the toughest assignment was down at Ocean Isle Beach getting a stubborn pelican, which couldn't fly, off a golf course," Collins said. "He got very aggressive. He looked short, but he stretched out his body and was eye-to-eye with me at 5-foot-5. I finally got him in the back cab of my truck but their noses are hard as hammers, and he pounded away on the windows all the way to a farm that took him in along Lockwood Folly inlet. And there he is doing fine."
From rescue to "doing fine" is now his daily mission for New Hanover County animals.
Collins, for instance, tracks down dogs running loose – who should be on a leash – and returns them to their owners, often along with a citation. He makes sure owners understand that an animal that has been bitten or bites must be quarantined for 10 days.
Bringing strays to the county shelter out by the airport is where Collins looks on with pride as staffers work their magic to make animals that are sickly or unsociable presentable for adoption.
Then Collins, who as a youngster growing up in Sunset Park was a regular in children's theater with Thalian organizations and the Straw Hat group at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and later compensated for his size by learning and teaching martial arts, heads home to a neighborhood full of kids and no stress.
He might even take some of them over to Village Road in Leland to Mr. Frosty's, just down the road from the Piggly Wiggly. His family bought the place in 1985 and he still works there on weekends. Its famous milkshakes loaded with butter cream weren't the culprit for his heart attack, he insists.
"It was hereditary," Collins said. "My mom had a heart attack when she was 21. I still have milkshakes. My favorite is the strawberry-pineapple-banana. And now my kids love those, too."
A treat from their daddy who feels just fine now.
(Star News Online - Sept 7, 2013)
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