“Life is what you make of it,” was Will’s message.  Like so many other rescues, no one knows where Willy came from or what happened in his bad past.  A woman found him on the streets of LA in the early ’90s in a sealed cardboard box, hairless, emaciated and shivering.  Someone had cut his vocal cords so he could not cry, and his back legs were paralyzed from a broken back.  He was brought to a vet’s office where he lived in a cage for the next year, until rescue worker Deborah Turner heard about Willy and gave him a loving forever home.  Deborah Turner adopted Willy and fitted him with the K-9 cart.  “This might sound dramatic,” Deborah says. “But it took his world from black and white into full blown color. Because that’s where life began for him.”

Willy overcame his life’s obstacles to become an international superstar on Animal Planet, National Geographic, and the talk show circuit.  He traveled the world and carried his message of hope everywhere he went.

Willy passed away peacefully in his sleep on Dec. 22, 2009.  Read Willy’s obituary and his information about his memorial service on Jan. 19, 2010 on Willy’s official website.

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