Jennifer Ivey Edwards, who also went by Ivey Scout and was known as The Pet Nanny for her Birmingham business that did pet-sitting and boarding for dogs, has died.

She died Tuesday, March 12. She was 44.

“She was a very warm, giving person,” said dog trainer Brook McCarley-Suda. “She just attracted people to her easily. She was a great person.”

Edwards was born May 3, 1979, in Brewton and graduated from T.R. Miller High School in 1997.

“She was an adventurer,” said her father, Steve Edwards. “She loved the outdoors, hiking and biking.”

She frequently traveled to other states for hiking trips, he said.

“She was brave enough to get an AirBNB in Washington, fly up there and hike for a week by herself,” her father said. “She did that in Oregon, Utah, California, just wherever she took a notion to go hike and be in nature.”

She was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2022 but continued to travel and hike, her father said. She went by the nickname “Scout” because it summed up her sense of adventure, he said.

“She was very, very independent and adamant about doing things her way,” he said. “She loved hiking, mountain biking, anything that she could do outside. She loved everybody. It didn’t matter what walk of life you came from.”

She grew up in the country with dogs and horses, he said.

She started The Pet Nanny business in 2015, although she had taken care of animals long before that, her father said.

She did pet sitting and boarding, running the business from her Roebuck Springs home.

“She was very proud of her business, being a woman-owned business,” McCarley-Suda said.

She had three dogs of her own, although one of them, Lola, had died recently, her father said.

She also had a white German shepherd named Thunder and a chow mix named Mowgli.

She earned an associate degree from Jefferson State Community College, a sociology degree from UAB and a master’s degree in environmental science from Samford University.

Her business, The Pet Nanny, had several employees and continues to operate, her father said.

Her sister, Philippa Edwards, will continue to run it, he said.

She was diagnosed with stomach cancer on Oct. 16, 2022, and had been undergoing treatment at UAB.

“She tried really hard to fight it and went on with life as if nobody knew she was sick,” McCarley-Suda said. “She was riding mountain bikes. She was going on trips and having fun.”

She began to weaken in December, her father said.

“She did really well until about Christmas,” he said. “She took a trip to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and went hiking in October. Everybody was amazed she was still going. She was strong.”

A graveside funeral will be held Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Union Cemetery in Brewton, with Williams Memorial Chapel officiating, followed by visitation at The Hourglass in Brewton. A memorial service in Birmingham will be held at a later date but has not been set yet, her father said.

“Ivey wanted to keep it simple,” her father said.