"Life Story," posted each Saturday on Leader Publications' website, is an expanded obituary that focuses on one individual's impact on his or her community.
Her mother knew there was something fishy going on when little Lisa carried a bowl of milk up the stairs toward the child's bedroom.
"She told me she was going up to do her homework, and she was taking the milk up so she could have some cereal," Susan Reynolds recalled of that long-ago day. "But it was obvious to me - she had a kitten up there, probably one she had picked up off the street someplace."
Rescuing and caring for unfortunate creatures was a life theme for Reynolds' daughter, Lisa Schuppe, who died suddenly from a brain aneurysm on April 21, 2012, at age 44.
"She was a very strong and independent person," Reynolds said of her daughter, who was the single mother of an 18-year-old son. "She was very caring about every living being."
Lisa was a dedicated animal rescue volunteer from an early age.
"Even as a little kid, stray animals she'd find on the street, she'd be bringing them home," her mother said. "One time she found out that the dad of one of her friends was going to have their dog put to sleep because he didn't want it any more. Lisa came running in to me - I was baking cookies - and said, 'Can Chrissy spend the night?'
"Now, I didn't remember any kid named Chrissy - but I was raising four kids by myself, and I might have missed it. So I told her, 'Sure.'
"All of a sudden here she comes with this little white dog, and I asked her what in the world was going on.
"'Well, you said Chrissy could spend the night!' was what she said."
As adults, Lisa and her twin sister, Laura, both took in rescued dogs and cats.
"Lisa was very active with all kinds of rescue groups," Reynolds said. "She lived in Austin, Texas, for a while and belonged to a Yorkie rescue group down there. She'd be the person to provide a temporary home for dogs they would get in. She would always end up adopting the ones nobody would want - they were blind, they were crippled, they were old."
Lisa couldn't bear to see those animals suffer from lack of love and care.
"She'd say, 'I fell in love with them. I have to keep them.' She'd be upset when they died, but I'd tell her, "You have to remember that you gave them a lot of love at the end of their lives," Reynolds said.
It wasn't just animals that were the recipients of Lisa's boundless affection and caring nature.
"She was always there for people who needed a hand," her mother said. "Her aunt had cancer and had to have part of her scalp removed. Lisa had real long hair, and she said she wanted to cut it so Locks of Love could make a wig. I told her they would be able to get a wig for her, but Lisa insisted. She cut her hair off, real short, for her Aunt Sylvia.
"That was how she was; there was always something she was working on or someone she was trying to help. That was Lisa's personality."
It was no surprise to her family, then, to discover Lisa's last wish was to be an organ donor. She had filled out the request on the back of her driver's license.
"It didn't surprise anybody who knew her," Reynolds said. "One of her kidneys went to Florida; the rest were going to people here in the St. Louis area. She helped a lot of families, and that would have been what she wanted."
Lisa had been having headaches, but doctors didn't think it was anything serious. Then, on April 21, she was leaving work and collapsed on the way to her car. She never regained consciousness.
Susan Reynolds said she was gratified to see how many people came to pay their respects to Lisa. Services were held at Robert D. Brown Funeral Home in Hillsboro.
"She had many more friends than I thought," Reynolds said. "Two of her former bosses drove up from Austin for her funeral. There were high school friends there, work friends. One of her friends from high school put up a Facebook page, and 1,200 people went on there to talk about her. That shows how much she was cared about."
Lisa's two dogs, a pit bull mix named Charlotte and a deaf pit bull named Howie, are available for adoption through Saving Dogs of Missouri, a group dedicated to helping shelters find homes for abandoned and unwanted animals.
Group spokeswoman Peggy KIing said pit bulls have a reputation that makes them difficult to adopt as a rescue.
"A lot of communities have a ban ordinance," she said. "A lot of shelters won't let individuals adopt them; they only will let them go to rescue groups. It makes it extremely difficult to find a home for a pit bull - and with Howie being deaf, it's even more of a challenge."
Anyone interested in helping find a home for Lisa's dogs is encouraged to find Saving Dogs of Missouri on Facebook, or to email the group at savingmodogs@gmail.com.
