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The wobbly bulldog who helped his rescuer heal
Nobody ever came to claim Noodle, and the shelter had decided to euthanize him. Tiffany wanted him to know what a home felt like, so she took him in. more
Noodle is an American bulldog with a rare brain disease that gets worse over time. It makes him wobble, and sometimes he faints. Tiffany was ready for a hospice case and a few kind weeks. A year on, he's still with her and doing great.
He was about 60 pounds when she got him, thin enough that she guesses he had been on his own for a few weeks. Now he weighs about 85. He leans right into her and wags his whole body, and she knew from the start that he belonged there.
Excitement can set him off, so she keeps his life calm and predictable. Her bedroom has blackout curtains and his little fan, a dark, quiet room where he feels safe during the day. She lowered the bed so he can get in and out on his own, then bought a lower couch and pushed it up to the window.
He loves looking out that window, one ear up and one ear down. Seeing him happy there, Tiffany says, is one of the greatest joys of her life.
His disease has been getting worse, so he now wears a special harness. On the stairs she straddles him and takes some of his weight, though for now he mostly manages on his own. He has never once barked in her home, and at night the family squeezes onto him like a big pillow.
Talking about what he means to her, Tiffany says she is going to try not to cry. Noodle came along while the family was grieving their last dog, and he helped them heal. She calls him a big teddy bear.
SaveShe has done senior hospice care for five years, and it never gets easier. The sadder thing, she says, would have been Noodle never leaving that shelter.
