Every story starts at a beginning... every story, long or short. Every story begins at the beginning and moves towards a middle, and comes to an end. Always... And this is that beginning, a "beginning" of a story in two volumes... "A 21st Century Adult Fairy Tale..." A journey through time distant and time near, before and into the NOW... But it's not about a dog... not in that beginning and and not in the now... The NOW... it's not about a dog... And so it begins... and the puppy ain't here yet. Nope... It's not even close by. Ziggy, Eric's six year old dog, is scampering about the house in all of his attitudinal and happy glory, playing daily down in the backyard, or running after one of his toys upstairs on the terrace, or chasing his canine friends out front... or jumping on a raft in the pool and barking, barking, barking... Ziggy barking... And before Ziggy there was Kitchi... Kitchi... Before, there was always BEFORE... Before was where it all began; before years and years and years ago, before... and Eric lived through "before"... Before where all was traditional, all was slow, life was deliberate, life was situation normal, expected even. And Eric was traditional then. And then the 1950's ended, the 1960's began, and the "Traditional" was doomed... nobody knew it yet, but rampant CHANGE was loosed upon Society, CHANGE was upon one and all. And that CHANGE would alter the Traditional fabric of America in ways no one could imagine or anticipate. And Eric, well... Eric had to change with those times... Eric had to live... Eric had to grow... Eric had to be successful... And Eric was... And so the "Traditional" morphed in to the Different, and the "Different" morphed in to the Modern, and the "Modern" morphed in to the "Now". And so Eric morphed too... first he was "Different", then he was "Modern", and here he is, "Now". NOW Yes... here Eric is "NOW" as his modern world is rocked by illness, and personal crisis after personal crisis... And finally by tragedy... as the "Center Ring", the "Big Kahuna"... the "Main Event"... tragedy... goes on and on and on... TRAGEDY... And NOW, finally... the Puppy is here... He wasn't before; but now he's here. All hail the puppy... HAIL