One day you’re being poisoned by some sadistic pet owner.

The next you’re the mascot for an eco-friendly skateboard company.

Meet William.

You might have seen him around town. He’s the doggie with the ridiculously big ears riding around in the arms of a guy on a skateboard.

The guy on the skateboard is David Hendrickson.

About two and a half years ago, Hendrickson was doing volunteer work at Orange County Animal Care in Orange and noticed a small crowd gathered around a kennel.

Word was that a pregnant dog had been poisoned by its owner. Three of her five pups in the litter didn’t survive. The other two, a brother and sister, had been brought to the shelter.

Hendrickson walked up to the cage.

“And that’s where I met William,” he recalls. “We just connected. We sat and stared at each other for a good minute straight. He had the (biggest) ears I’ve ever seen and these big, huge beautiful eyes. The only way I can explain it is love at first sight.”

The dog appeared to be some sort of Chihuahua-terrier mix. Five pounds soaking wet. He didn’t have a name, just a number.

Hendrickson adopted him that day. He had always thought that if he had a son he would name him William, so William it was. “I know, it’s weird,” he laughs. (He still plans to name his firstborn son William and hopes to adopt a special-needs child someday.)

Hendrickson took William back to his studio apartment in Anaheim.

He had grown up in a family that rescued everything from Rottweilers to a 20-pound tortoise. But tending to William was turning out to be tougher than Hendrickson expected. The tiny dog was plagued by vomiting and infections, and he needed expensive surgeries on his mouth, nasal passages and intestines.

Eventually, Hendrickson left Orange Coast College (after getting his AA in Graphic Design), and took on three jobs to pay for William’s medical bills.

When he wasn’t freelancing graphic design, working with children with brain injuries, or digging ditches on weekends for a construction company, Hendrickson would take his boy out on his skateboard, cradling him as they rode.

Then, this spring, as he was heading to Huntington Dog Beach, Hendrickson thought about how happy he was at that moment, with William in his arms. Something clicked. He loved William, he loved skateboarding and he loved art and design.

Why not put them all together?

He could design skateboards to benefit animals.

Ka-blam!

Only problem was he didn’t have any money.

Hmmm.

How could he get money?

Maybe he could sell something. Rummaging through his apartment, he found an old iPhone he’d abandoned after switching plans. He sold it on Craigslist for $200.

Then he went back to Craigslist and found a used silk screening machine for $95. He used the rest of the iPhone proceeds to buy three blank skateboard decks (without wheels) and some white T-shirts.

It was on.

He screened a silhouette of William, ears the size of Dumbo, on the shirts and hand-painted koi on his first boards.

He named his company Hendrick Boards and, in May, launched Hendrickboards.com. Almost everything about Hendrick is chemical free; a statement against the chemicals once fed to William.

The T-shirts are organic cotton with water-based inks. The stains he uses are made of coffee and crushed plants. And the 40-inch long boards (he calls them eco-cruisers) are bamboo. The short boards are made of Canadian maple.

The company has a Boards 4 Barks line that raises money for animal rescue. Every board purchase sends $10 to an animal rescue; $7.50 to a rescue in the state where the buyer lives and $2.50 to a national cause. This month, the national donation is going to the Humane Society of the United States for animals displaced by the tornadoes that recently hit the South. Each T-shirt sale in the Boards 4 Barks line sends $5 to a rescue and accessories send $2.

The Costa Mesa Bark Park and I.C.A.R.E. Animal Rescue in Irvine will be the recipients of purchases made in Orange County.

So how’s the dog that started it all?

William is described by some as a snuggler, and others as a ham who knows how to work a room.

“He tilts his head down and then takes his paw and rubs his face, and people just go crazy,” Hendrickson says. Another crowd pleaser is when he cocks one of his big ears into the air and then holds it up there.

“I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” Hendrickson says. “I have this job where I have William with me every day. We’re connected at the hip.”

Farewell to Wheely Willy, superstar Chihuahua

Pet psychic talks to cats

Contact the writer: 714-932-1705 or lbasheda@ocregister.com