FORT CAMPBELL, KY (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – When Paul and Molly McCurdy were assigned to Fort Campbell nearly nine years ago, they were excited to begin their new journey, and even more excited when, two years later, they discovered their family was growing.
In 2017, their first child Paislee was born. But the excitement was shrouded in worry as Paislee arrived ahead of schedule, a worry that would intensify over the first year of her life when her health began to hint at something serious. Now, over seven years later, the McCurdys have welcomed a new member to their family: a shelter dog named Clifford, who has eyes only for Paislee and her health.
‘She was ghost white and not breathing’
On June 19, 2017, Paislee was born premature at only 4 pounds, something Molly and Paul had expected when they learned their daughter was growth-restricted in utero.
“We knew she was going to be small, but we didn’t know if she was going to have any medical issues as nothing was detected until she was 2 months old,” Molly told Clarksville Now.
Twelve days after her birth, Paislee was discharged from the NICU, but she struggled to gain weight. The McCurdys regularly visited the doctor up to this point as Paislee couldn’t hold down the milk she was drinking.
One day while Paul was away for training with the Army, Molly was bottle-feeding Paislee when her infant daughter went ghost-white and stopped breathing.
“I had to do CPR on her at 5 pounds and 2 months old,” Molly said. The ambulance arrived quickly and Paislee began breathing again. Paislee then spend an entire month in the hospital for testing and treatment as her parents and doctors searched for answers.
Rare, chromosome 10 disorder
Paislee was transferred from Blanchfield Army Community Hospital on post to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville.
“We knew she had some airway issues,” Molly said. “That’s where we discovered that she had this very rare chromosome 10 disorder.” It’s a disorder in which the end portion of the short arm of chromosome 10 is missing.
Molly says there isn’t much information on Paislee’s disorder, and that the literature available about Paislee’s “specific deletion” was written about 20 years ago. At barely 3 months old, Paislee had to get a feeding tube through her stomach, since she aspirated every time she was fed.
“She spent the first year of her life in and out of hospitals,” Molly said, with her daughter visiting doctors, trying new medications, and going through minor surgeries.
Paislee’s protector
Now 7 years old, Paislee has overcome many obstacles, but many others remain.
“She didn’t start crawling until after 2 years old,” Molly said. “And she just started walking for the very first time on Halloween (2024).”
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Paislee has ataxic cerebral palsy, scoliosis and functionality issues. She also needs oxygen for her respiratory problems, is non-verbal autistic, has hearing and vision issues, and has to use a wheelchair to navigate long distances.
With Paislee going to school, and her increasing mobility, Molly and Paul want to see their daughter flourish but also stay safe and healthy. So, they turned to the family dog, Wes: Paislee’s protector.
“Wes has natural instincts and could sense when Paisley wasn’t feeling good,” Molly said. “We talked about getting him trained, but medical stuff had arisen and family emergencies, and we never got around to it. He’s a little too old now, he’s 8.”
With Paislee hitting these new milestones, the McCurdy family began to seriously pursue getting a service dog, which led them to the Fort Campbell Stray Facility.
Clifford the Great Pyrenees mix
When the McCurdy family got to the shelter, Molly was drawn by the size of one dog in particular: a Great Pyrenees mix named Clifford. Despite hesitation over his nearly 120-pound size, Molly and Paul met with Clifford and decided to coordinate a house visit for Clifford to meet Paislee and Wes.
While Clifford was at the McCurdy home, Paislee began to have tremors (part of her disorder) and Clifford did something unexpected. “He instantly sat down and put his head on her lap,” Molly said.
After seeing this, and watching Clifford and Wes get along, Alex Rohan, a trainer with Next-Door K9 Solutions of Clarksville, evaluated Clifford and determined the shelter dog had great potential. With that, the McCurdys welcomed Clifford to the family.
In order to get Clifford fully trained to help Paislee, the McCurdy family has to raise funds to pay for a special type of service dog training that will teach Clifford how to sense when Paislee’s tremors are about to happen, keep her calm when the tremors occur, assist her with walking when she gets tired, and alert others if she has fallen.
To help the McCurdy family, click the Paws for Paislee AngeLink page.
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