Perhaps the most remarkable member of the dog therapy team visiting Lake Butler Hospital is Sierra Joy, a three-legged pit bull handled by Jodie Wilk-Pollard. Sierra Joy arrived at animal services heartworm positive, suffering from pneumonia and with a badly damaged front leg that had never been treated. She was slated for euthanasia when a volunteer persuaded the rescue group Plenty of Pit Bulls to take her. The University of Florida amputated her leg and treated her heartworm, and the Wilk-Pollards — who had recently lost a dog to lymphoma — adopted her.
“When he met her, it was love at first sight,” Wilk-Pollard said of her husband. When a trainer evaluated Sierra Joy for therapy work, the verdict was quick: “She’s a natural.”
