<p>Tappan strokes the ears of her 14-year-old wire-haired dachshund Jack who suffers from a heart problem in the front yard of her house in Dalton Gardens. Tappan suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) in her lungs and a broken hip which affects her walking. “The golden years have been hard on Jack; they’ve been hard on both of us,” Tappan said.</p>

December 3, 2014