Photography by Susan Munroe
A message from Dan’s beloved wife:
Daniel Swetlik was born into a family who revered dogs. There was never a time when there wasn’t a dog in his house and he often kidded that he was “raised by dogs.” Besides his love for dogs, he discovered music at an early age and became a proficient drummer, cellist, bass and guitar player. He was a songwriter and toured for years with a successful swing band called Swing Fever and more recently the classic rock band High Mileage. He also played bass with the Peninsula Symphony. He discovered Rocket Dog after the loss of our beloved dog, Pele. You can imagine the serendipity we felt when we discovered Rocket Dog was founded by a woman with the same name, Pali! Immediately we had a huge connection and Daniel hand picked every dog we’ve adopted since from Rocket Dog. Dinah (Chica) was one of Rocket Dog’s lead dogs and a year later we took Boomer (Prince) in to foster him. I think Boomer was the love of Dan’s life. We had 13 excellent years of parading him around in Daniels buggy and Porsche with doggles on. Many a photo op with Boomer! We lost Boomer last November but after Dinah’s passing the previous December we adopted Rosie from Rocket Dog January 2017. Rocket Dog consistently prepares these lost and often damaged dogs for loving homes and Daniel was devoted to Rocket Dog. I know he is delighted to have a page with his name on it to help the cause of such a wonderful organization. My husband is in dog heaven now. Everyone knew of Dan’s love for dogs. We took our dogs to restaurants, hotels, slept with them…they went where we went. It was rare you would see Daniel without his dog. He is a lucky man and I continue here with our dear Rosie. Thank you for donating in loving memory to my husband, RocketStar Daniel Edward Swetlik. April 7, 1952 to April 10, 2018.
If Daniel encountered two doors….one marked “Heaven” and the other “Hell” but had a dog in front of it, he would most certainly choose the second door
–Maurine Killuogh
If you would like to make a donation in honor of Dan and his truly bright and beautiful soul, the family has requested that any donations may sent to Rocket Dog Rescue. With your kind support, we will continue our life-saving work in Dan’s honor. Please click the button below if you would like to make a donation. Thank you!