This is a picture of "Willy the Fighting Dachshund" and his handler, Daniel Semencic. Willy was my wife's dog. We had him flown up from Florida when he was twelve weeks old. He was nine years old when this picture was taken and his health was like that of a year old pup. He was a great, little (8 pound) alarm dog and he was as devoted to my wife as any dog has ever been devoted to any master. If he needed to go out in the morning, it had to be Barbara who opened the door to let him out because if I open it, he won't go. In his own way, he held his own against every dog I've ever brought home and folks, let me tell you, THAT is saying something!

Willy's last day on earth was Wednesday, December 5th, 2001. We had to have him put down at noon that day at age 13 and a half. I always figured that such a small, healthy dog would live longer than that but everything hit him at once just about the time of his 13th birthday. He was with us for a long time and although he was never my dog, I miss him anyway. I'll bet that right at the end, he realized that I wasn't such a bad guy after all.