If a long journey starts with one tiny step, then this compilation is one such journey: tiny 500-word steps tentatively uploaded each month to ABC Open. Add a sprinkle of other tales and an earlier historical article, and the broader journey emerges. Follow animal antics and ride a rollercoaster of love, heartbreak, friendships, family and courage in the sixty-three stories comprising this collection. Following the 2014 publication of my family memoir, 'Three Trunks and a Cardboard Case', I realised many of the 500-word ABC stories I since wrote complemented the background and events of the family story, while bringing later events to light. 'When are you writing another book?' was an oft-repeated query from readers of my memoir. Perhaps this can be a small stepping stone in that direction. For my part, it has been an enjoyable sojourn: delving into the past, into the wondrous natural world or the unpredictable, engaging world of pets and the people around us. And, occasionally, straying from the secure mantle of non-fiction with brief forays into fiction. Subtle changes in writing style inevitably occur over time, and related later themes at times impinge on events of earlier stories. But the accounts have generally been reproduced as originally written, with dates serving as a marker. Readers who have enjoyed the emergence of these stories over the years can now appreciate them together in one collection. I hope you enjoy reading them now.