He had a ruptured disk in his spine. We found out that this is a common problem with dachshunds. But we live in a city where there is a wonderful animal surgical clinic, and Dr. Patterson was able to perform surgery on Stumpy the very next day. Over many many weeks, Stumpy slowly recovered. Today, he is fully recovered.
Dachshunds have a relatively long life expectancy.
They have been known to live 18 to 22 years. Stumpy is about 9 years old. Pyewacket' was the name of the witch's cat in the book 'Bell, Book and Candle'. This book was made into a movie of the same title in the 60's starring Jimmy Stewart as the innocent boyfriend, Kim Novak as the modern day witch, Jack Lemmon as her beatnik brother and Elsa Lancaster as her witchy sidekick. It is a pretty silly movie.