— Judge Dillard (@JudgeDillard) January 30, 2017

JudgeDillard’sDog (@JudgDillardDog), aka Irish, replied: “I’m innocent! Chased away a burglar and then followed him down  to the creek to help authorities. Need a lawyer quick!”

It was Irish’s Twitter debut. And suddenly, instead of  Irish being in Dillard’s doghouse, the appellate court judge was now in hers.

Irish quickly developed a witty repartee with Dillard and his followers. On Feb. 3, Dillard tweeted at Irish, asking for an assurance that, if she was let out into the yard, she wouldn’t go down to the creek.

Irish would not roll over. She replied: “I did not agree to stay within the confines of the prison yard; I was out on a writ habeas corpus.”

When one legal wag rejoined: “It’s habeas sportus for dogs—’let him have the fun.’ Routinely self-granted,” Irish replied, “Either way I should be free! Plus, my Latin isn’t very good. The translation always comes back as woof!”

Since then, Irish has garnered 55 followers, including Dillard and Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown. She has replied to tweets by Texas Supreme Court Justice master tweeter Don Willett and to Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman with a robust defense of Guzman’s own dog, held in contempt by the justice for sleeping on the couch.