When Lisa Edge first met Poppy Grace, she knew she’d become part of her family. Poppy, an American Bulldog mix, was found by Edge’s daughter on the Iowa County Humane Society’s website last summer, having been rescued from the side of the road by an Avoca police officer. Emaciated and neglected, she carried a mere 64 pounds on her large frame. She was hairless, diabetic, and blind and faced a host of other critical health conditions.
“I didn’t stop thinking about her – I felt she needed me, and I needed her,” Edge recalls. After adopting Poppy, “I slept with her on the floor for the next eight months knowing it was possible she wouldn’t make it.”
Poppy suffered abuse at the hands of her original owner for the first six years of her life. Later, that Avoca resident plead no contest to Negligent Intentional Mistreatment of an Animal and received a 10-day jail sentence.
“The district attorney said this never happens; I started receiving messages from police officers that the sentence was unprecedented,” Edge says. “Poppy made history that day.”
After adopting Poppy last summer, Edge brought her to a local veterinary clinic where the team didn’t provide much hope and recommended Poppy be euthanized. Edge refused to give up and followed through with a referral to UW Veterinary Care (UWVC). There, she found hope as Poppy’s care team started to systematically address her many needs.
Vanessa Bruneau, a resident in small animal internal medicine, has been one of Poppy’s primary veterinarians at UWVC and helped address everything from hypothyroidism to a life-threatening complication of diabetes called ketoacidosis. “With medication adjustment and a lot of nursing care, Poppy pulled through and has only been getting better,” she says. “It’s amazing to see how loving and trusting she is after everything she’s been through, and seeing the beautiful community surrounding Poppy shows us of the importance of dogs in peoples’ lives and reminds us why we all wanted to work in veterinary medicine in the first place.”
Poppy isn’t the first dog with serious challenges that Edge has cared for. She fostered her first blind dog 17 years ago and currently has five other dogs she cares for along with Poppy, most either blind or missing legs.
“I don’t know what it’s like to have a full dog,” she jokes.
But, in all seriousness, Edge is grateful to see Poppy starting to thrive with loving care from her and UWVC. She has gained 30 pounds to get to a healthier weight, grown back fur and been treated for her most immediate needs. She is finally almost healthy enough to get spayed and have her diseased eyes removed.
In addition, Poppy has garnered quite a following on the Noah’s Legacy Facebook page, where Edge has been sharing stories of her special dogs for nearly 10 years – starting with a blind pup named Noah. Noah’s Legacy has attracted nearly 35,000 followers, with many checking in on Poppy’s adventures almost daily.
As Poppy’s journey continues, Edge remains focused on giving her the quality of life she deserved all along.
“Poppy’s story has given thousands of people hope – some are fighting illnesses, some are lonely and some have been at a point where they wanted to give up,” she says. “Enter Poppy, a survivor who has defied all odds. She is the poster pup for hope.”