She was locked in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by alien sights, sounds and – perhaps most importantly to a dog – smells. It’s no wonder that the little pooch was so scared. But when she tried to escape the human who had backed her into a corner, he did the most astonishing thing.

Yet that wasn’t how the story began for the little Maltese Poodle called Edie. Although many details about her life remain unclear, in early 2010 she ended up in a Californian shelter. The Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Lancaster, to be exact.

Understandably, the petrified poodle’s terror had got the best of her, and she was acting out. Unfortunately, though, she was staying at a shelter where euthanasia was permitted – and she was scheduled for termination.

“Kill shelter” is a term used for any shelter that puts down more than 10 percent of its animal residents. Edie had been classified as too aggressive for rehoming, and that made her a candidate for being put to sleep.

However, Bronwyne Mirkovich had noticed the poodle at the shelter and couldn’t bear to see her handed a death sentence. So she called in a favor from a friend. That friend was Eldad Hagar from Hope For Paws.

Hagar founded the Los Angeles-based Hope For Paws organization with his wife, Audrey. The non-profit charity had made it a goal to save every animal it could from the most desperate situations. Given the circumstances, then, Edie was definitely an emergency case.