A doggone fine tale

Marisa O’Neil

Willy the Chihuahua has a mean set of wheels.

He also made quite a story for Paularino Elementary School

students on Thursday during the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District’s Author Festival. Artist Susan Ahrend, who illustrated the

book “How Willy Got His Wings” and was one of 34 authors at

elementary schools districtwide, shared the tale of the paralyzed

dog, Willy, with the students.

As a bonus, Paularino students got to meet Willy’s girlfriend, an

11-year-old Maltese therapy dog named Dolly. Willy himself had a

prior engagement, but Ahrend brought along her drawings and plenty of

slides showing Willy dressed in a sailor suit, in a sombrero and in

an Elvis costume.

“I love Willy. he’s so cute,” Kaylah Vaca, 8, said, gushing.

In the weeks leading up to the visit, students read the book,

written by Diana Mohler and Willy’s owner, Deborah Turner. They even

colored pictures of Willy from Ahrend’s illustrations and filled the

multipurpose room with them.

On Thursday, Ahrend told students how a veterinarian found Willy

-- or Wheely Willy, as he’s now known -- on the streets of Los

Angeles, his spinal cord and vocal cords severed. Animal-lover Turner

took him in and got a special cart crafted to carry his back legs.

A red heart on top reads, “Wheely Willy.”

“Now he’s a happy ‘I can do anything’ dog,” Ahrend said.

Willy works as a therapy dog visiting hospitals, and has made

numerous TV appearances. The book tells the story of Willy taking his

first airplane trip.

“I like the story,” 8-year-old Garrett Herrington said. “I like

the adventure.”

Learning about a little dog in a wheelchair fits perfectly into

students’ character education lesson, library clerk Linda Cundiff

said. This month, they’re learning about acceptance.

They also learned the value of perseverance from Ahrend, who

showed examples of how her book illustrations progressed. It took her

several different sketches, she said, to get Willy just right.

“Don’t let being afraid help you from what you really want to do,”

she told them.