Bubba Nulisch was put into a medically induced coma at a Dallas hospital in late April after doctors decided it was the only way to save his life from a deadly bacterial infection.
“He said that Bullet had gone missing, and he couldn’t find him anywhere,” Nulisch, 58, recalled. “I was devastated, and I couldn’t stop crying. I wondered if I’d see my best buddy again.”
Desperate to find his dog, Nulisch spent more than a week in late May and early June scrolling through lost and found pet sites on his phone from his bed at the rehab center. He also posted about the missing canine on a Dallas lost pets Facebook page.
Then on June 5, he spotted the little mixed-breed pup on the Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center Facebook page.
“I knew it was my pup just by looking at him,” Nulisch said. “He was wearing the red collar I’d bought him, and he was sitting on somebody’s lap. I thought he looked scared.”
Nulisch contacted the adoption center and found out that a police officer had found the dog on the street and brought him to the shelter in early June. He also learned that Bullet was being fostered by a woman who would be adopting him June 9.
“That was my pup. I wanted him back with me, where he belonged,” Nulisch said.
He’d taken in Bullet as a puppy four years ago, and said the dog “helped me during a time when I was feeling a little depressed.”
Nulisch, a former long haul truck driver, said he retired in 2015 after 30 years on the road due to health reasons.
“I’d been to every state in the country — I never wanted to do anything except drive a truck,” he said. “It was my life, and then all of a sudden it was gone.”
In 2019, when a neighbor’s dog had puppies, she gave one of them to Nulisch.
“That pup perked me right up,” he said. “He’d been given the name Max, but I didn’t think it fit. Then I was watching ‘The Roy Rogers Show’ on TV and I saw that [Roy] had a German shepherd named Bullet. I knew that was it. I’d name my pup Bullet.”
Nulisch said he was separated from his dog for the first time in April when he ended up in the hospital with cellulitis — a bacterial skin infection that can be life-threatening.
“I slipped off my bed and couldn’t get back up, so a friend staying with me called 911,” he said. “I don’t remember much after that. The next thing I knew, they were putting me into a coma.”
Once he was in the rehab center, he said he had one goal: get better so he could be with Bullet again.
“When I learned he was missing, I’ve never felt so sad,” he said. “Then when he was found, I was really upset to learn somebody else was going to adopt him.”
Nulisch emailed animal services to alert them that he was Bullet’s owner, and he got a reply saying he needed to provide medical or vaccination records as proof, he said.
“I didn’t have medical records or anything like that,” Nulisch said. “All I had was pictures on my phone of him.”
He said the email specified that photos of him holding the dog weren’t enough proof to claim his pet.
Nulisch posted on social media, asking for help to convince Dallas Animal Services that the stray pup they’d put up for adoption was his dog.
Fortunately for Nulisch, a woman he’d never met named Kim Joppie saw his post asking for help. Joppie, who runs the Texas Airedale Surrender Rescue in Dallas, said she immediately felt compelled to help him get Bullet back.
“Here’s a guy in rehab, trying to get better and wanting desperately to see his dog again,” she said. “I thought, ‘Man, I really need to make this happen.’”
Joppie, 43, said she contacted Nulisch and asked him to send her any photos he had of him with Bullet.
“I’ve worked with people from Dallas Animal Services many times over the years, and I knew I could help,” she said.
Joppie said she found out that Nulisch had to fill out a form to reclaim Bullet, so she dropped by the Dallas Animal Services office to get the paperwork for him and find out who was fostering the canine. Then she met on FaceTime with the foster volunteer who was in the process of adopting the dog. Joppie showed the volunteer photos of the dog that Nulisch had sent her.
When the volunteer saw the photos and noticed Bullet’s markings, she realized it was Nulisch’s dog, Joppie said.
“She behaved with class and character and agreed that Bubba should have his dog back,” Joppie said.
Dallas Animal Services staffers were also convinced that Bullet belonged to Nulisch.
Amanda Atwell, public information coordinator for Dallas Animal Services, said they always ask for documentation because they want to be sure a pet isn’t picked up by anyone other than the rightful owner.
“But we do make exceptions, and we ended up making an exception in this case,” she said. “We realize that not everyone has proof and we’re happy to work with them.”
Joppie said she offered to take the dog home with her for about a week until Nulisch was released from the rehab facility.
“Bullet is such a sweet dog — very obedient and well-mannered,” she said. “But he did have this little habit of pushing me off the couch.”
Joppie made sure Bullet was neutered, microchipped and up to date on his vaccinations, then she took the dog to visit Nulisch in rehab June 14, four days before he was sent home.
“They were just about to close for the day, but they let us in, and we saw Bubba was just down the hall in his wheelchair,” she said. “As soon as Bubba called out for Bullet, that dog took off.”
“My heart was incredibly full that day,” Joppie added. “Of course, I cried.”
Nulisch also wept as his pup leaped into his lap and started licking his face.
“This time, they were tears of joy — I got my fur baby back,” he said. “Bullet was like the cartoon character Underdog — he flew straight into my arms.”
Atwell, of Dallas Animal Services, said she is glad to have helped Bullet find his home again.
“We’re thrilled that we were able to help reunite Bubba and Bullet, and that this story had a happy ending,” she said.
Now that Nulisch is back home and watching old westerns with Bullet, he said he is endlessly grateful for Joppie’s kindness.
“Kim is an angel to do what she did for me,” he said. “I was feeling pretty hopeless, and I don’t know what I would have done without her. That woman will be my friend and Bullet’s friend for the rest of our lives.”