[2] She was well-known to residents of Camberley, Surrey, for what historian Arthur Bryant described as the "astonishing spectacle" of her pushing a wooden cart along Camberley High Street "surrounded by dogs of every size and species".
[1][2] Around the time Ward bought her Camberley home, she found a lame greyhound on the doorstep of the local vet.
[1][4] Ward described one incident where a dog was "flung out of a car in the middle of the London Road, by the [Royal Military] Academy, among all the traffic".
Someone had constructed for her a cart made of wooden planks, painted with the words "Ward Stray Dogs".
[5] Bryant wrote that his correspondence with Ward showed a religious aspect of her devotion to animals.
I love to feel I am the unknown hand (never mentioned in the story) to get ready the stable for His coming on earth".
[2][4] In a 1975 interview, Ward explained that whenever one of her dogs died she had previously taken in another one, but at the age of 80 she could no longer do this.
[4] As her health deteriorated and she suffered a number of strokes, Ward moved to the nearby Kingsclear residential home.
Ward had set up a trust fund to ensure her dogs could continue to be looked after once she died.