Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Forward



I heard recently that all dog stories end the same.  The dog dies.  True for "Old Yeller", "Marley and Me", "Where the Red Fern Grows".  In "Old Yeller", they even tell you that part on the first page.  You know exactly where you are headed with that one.

This story is different, and yet the same.  

Technically, we all die in the end.  Every one of us.  Four-legged or two.  It is the way of the world.  We are born, live our lives, and then die.  

Riley's story will end the same, someday.  But you won't know it.  The hope is that this book will be finished long before Riley's story is over.

For Riley's story is a story of life.  Of living with a challenge.  Not a disability, or even a disadvantage.  A challenge.

Challenges are good things.  

They make us better a person.  Or a better pup.  They push us to be new levels.  To go beyond what we think we can do.

In this case, Riley's challenge became our challenge.  Learning, growing, changing.

All because of epilepsy.

What follows is Riley's story, from Riley's viewpoint, as best we can tell it.