“He stated that Bullet had gone lacking, and he couldn’t discover him wherever,” Nulisch, 58, recalled. “I used to be devastated, and I couldn’t cease crying. I questioned if I’d see my finest buddy once more.”
Determined to search out his canine, Nulisch spent greater than every week in late Might and early June scrolling by means of misplaced and located pet websites on his telephone from his mattress on the rehab middle. He additionally posted in regards to the lacking canine on a Dallas lost pets Fb web page.
Then on June 5, he noticed the little mixed-breed pup on the Dallas Animal Providers and Adoption Heart Facebook web page.
“I knew it was my pup simply by taking a look at him,” Nulisch stated. “He was sporting the pink collar I’d purchased him, and he was sitting on any person’s lap. I believed he appeared scared.”
Nulisch contacted the adoption middle and discovered {that a} police officer had found the dog on the road and introduced him to the shelter in early June. He additionally discovered that Bullet was being fostered by a lady who could be adopting him June 9.
“That was my pup. I needed him again with me, the place he belonged,” Nulisch stated.
He’d taken in Bullet as a pet 4 years in the past, and stated the canine “helped me throughout a time after I was feeling a bit of depressed.”
Nulisch, a former lengthy haul truck driver, stated he retired in 2015 after 30 years on the street as a consequence of well being causes.
“I’d been to each state within the nation — I by no means needed to do something besides drive a truck,” he stated. “It was my life, after which abruptly it was gone.”
In 2019, when a neighbor’s canine had puppies, she gave certainly one of them to Nulisch.
“That pup perked me proper up,” he stated. “He’d been given the title Max, however I didn’t suppose it match. Then I used to be watching ‘The Roy Rogers Present’ on TV and I noticed that [Roy] had a German shepherd named Bullet. I knew that was it. I’d title my pup Bullet.”
Nulisch stated he was separated from his canine for the primary time in April when he ended up within the hospital with cellulitis — a bacterial pores and skin an infection that may be life-threatening.
“I slipped off my mattress and couldn’t get again up, so a good friend staying with me known as 911,” he stated. “I don’t bear in mind a lot after that. The subsequent factor I knew, they had been placing me right into a coma.”
As soon as he was within the rehab middle, he stated he had one purpose: get higher so he may very well be with Bullet once more.
“Once I discovered he was lacking, I’ve by no means felt so unhappy,” he stated. “Then when he was discovered, I used to be actually upset to be taught any person else was going to undertake him.”
Nulisch emailed animal companies to alert them that he was Bullet’s proprietor, and he bought a reply saying he wanted to supply medical or vaccination data as proof, he stated.
“I didn’t have medical data or something like that,” Nulisch stated. “All I had was footage on my telephone of him.”
He stated the e-mail specified that photographs of him holding the canine weren’t sufficient proof to say his pet.
Nulisch posted on social media, asking for assist to persuade Dallas Animal Providers that the stray pup they’d put up for adoption was his canine.
Happily for Nulisch, a lady he’d by no means met named Kim Joppie noticed his put up asking for assist. Joppie, who runs the Texas Airedale Surrender Rescue in Dallas, stated she instantly felt compelled to assist him get Bullet again.
“Right here’s a man in rehab, making an attempt to get higher and wanting desperately to see his canine once more,” she stated. “I believed, ‘Man, I actually need to make this occur.’”
Joppie, 43, stated she contacted Nulisch and requested him to ship her any photographs he had of him with Bullet.
“I’ve labored with folks from Dallas Animal Providers many instances over time, and I knew I may assist,” she stated.
Joppie stated she discovered that Nulisch needed to fill out a kind to reclaim Bullet, so she dropped by the Dallas Animal Providers workplace to get the paperwork for him and discover out who was fostering the canine. Then she met on FaceTime with the foster volunteer who was within the technique of adopting the canine. Joppie confirmed the volunteer photographs of the canine that Nulisch had despatched her.
When the volunteer noticed the photographs and observed Bullet’s markings, she realized it was Nulisch’s canine, Joppie stated.
“She behaved with class and character and agreed that Bubba ought to have his canine again,” Joppie stated.
Dallas Animal Providers staffers had been additionally satisfied that Bullet belonged to Nulisch.
Amanda Atwell, public info coordinator for Dallas Animal Providers, stated they at all times ask for documentation as a result of they wish to be certain a pet isn’t picked up by anybody apart from the rightful proprietor.
“However we do make exceptions, and we ended up making an exception on this case,” she stated. “We understand that not everybody has proof and we’re joyful to work with them.”
Joppie stated she supplied to take the canine residence along with her for a few week till Nulisch was launched from the rehab facility.
“Bullet is such a candy canine — very obedient and well-mannered,” she stated. “However he did have this little behavior of pushing me off the sofa.”
Joppie made certain Bullet was neutered, microchipped and updated on his vaccinations, then she took the canine to go to Nulisch in rehab June 14, 4 days earlier than he was despatched residence.
“They had been nearly to shut for the day, however they allow us to in, and we noticed Bubba was simply down the corridor in his wheelchair,” she stated. “As quickly as Bubba known as out for Bullet, that canine took off.”
“My coronary heart was extremely full that day,” Joppie added. “After all, I cried.”
Nulisch additionally wept as his pup leaped into his lap and began licking his face.
“This time, they had been tears of pleasure — I bought my fur child again,” he stated. “Bullet was just like the cartoon character Underdog — he flew straight into my arms.”
Atwell, of Dallas Animal Providers, stated she is glad to have helped Bullet discover his residence once more.
“We’re thrilled that we had been capable of assist reunite Bubba and Bullet, and that this story had a contented ending,” she stated.
Now that Nulisch is again residence and watching outdated westerns with Bubba, he stated he’s endlessly grateful for Joppie’s kindness.
“Kim is an angel to do what she did for me,” he stated. “I used to be feeling fairly hopeless, and I don’t know what I’d have executed with out her. That lady might be my good friend and Bullet’s good friend for the remainder of our lives.”
