Chapter 4, part 1

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And then, HD was looking down from a great height, onto a city that seemed bathed in a soft, golden light. He was flying, soaring over buildings and bridges with gentle strokes of his wide, white wings. He could see the green of the park that filled the middle of the city, he saw the sea that lapped at the docks of the waterfront, and, turning in flight with the gentlest tilt of his wings, he floated over the building that had been his birthplace. Dropping down a little lower, he saw the man that had fed him, standing on the sidewalk, his hand shading his eyes as he looked up, offering a wide toothy smile to HD, and a wave of his other hand. HD tipped each wing, side to side, as return greeting, and then circled back over the city.

Wait a minute – he was flying? How could this be?  His mind staggered a moment and he forgot to keep flapping his wings. He quickly recovered, and thought – Wings? Where did he get wings from? He didn’t know much about puppies, being only a brand-new one himself, but he never imagined he’d have wings. Maybe he was still lying under the step in the alley, fast asleep and dreaming. Suddenly, it seemed the golden glow started to fade and darken a little, and his wings started to feel heavy and tired. The more he wondered about whether or not he was really flying, the harder it became to stay aloft. Since it was so much fun – and since he looked down and saw what a long way he’d fall if his wings stopped working – he pushed the thought from his mind, and lifted his head to look out over the horizon, and the light softened and he felt light as a feather. A little “woof!” escaped his mouth, and he circled joyously back to the city again. Asleep or dreaming, he was flying!

Transformed

He practiced a few swoops and fancy turns, and finally swooped down to where he had seen the man from last night. He was still standing on the sidewalk, and HD folded his wings and dove straight at him. The man jumped back, laughing, at the last second, and HD opened his wings and soared straight up, flipped over, and dropped back down, landing softly on the sidewalk beside the man’s feet. He looked up into the man’s face, and when the man reached down to give HD his usual scratch-behind-the-ears, HD, without even thinking about it, spread his wings and leapt into the air. It didn’t surprise him, because somehow he knew it would happen, but the man and he rose into the golden-lit sky together, and flew as one over the city. The streets and parks and building all were transformed. What had once been a gray, grimy, scary looking place now, in the soft golden light that seemed to emanate from HD himself, was beautiful – multi-colored, sparkling and clean. It filled HD with a feeling of promise and hope and happiness. With the wind flapping his ears back, he heard the man laughing and shouting with glee.  They flew around and around, surprising seagulls and pigeons, and HD felt like he could fly like this forever, carrying the man right along with him.

Chapter 4, Part 1  THE BIRTH OF HAPPY DOG

Written by Stephen Harris, Created & Illustrated by Val Sivilli

Protected by Copyright Laws of the United States,  COPYRIGHTED, 2011

No part may be used without the author’s permission.

Chapter 3, part 2

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A few moments after  he reached the bottom of the staircase, he found himself in a very dark alley. He turned toward the street and ran. As soon as he reached the corner, he turned down another dark alley which seemed to him like a very long way from where he started. He stopped to catch his breath. He found another staircase and curled himself beneath it.

A door opened.  A man came back out. He was carrying a metal bowl that smelled very good. The pup poked his nose out from under the step where he was hiding to get a better sniff.  The man put the dish down on the ground and went back through the door.

Not knowing if the dish were for him of for some other forlorn, homeless newborn being, he happily ate what was in it… because it was so very yummy!  He crawled back under the stair and quickly fell asleep.

END OF CHAPTER 3, PART 2, THE BIRTH OF HAPPY DOG

Written by Stephen Harris, Created & Illustrated by Val Sivilli

Protected by Copyright Laws of the United States,  COPYRIGHTED, 2011

No part may be used without the author’s permission.

 

Chapter 3, Part I

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The poor little pup was soaked to the bone and shivering with cold, despite the warmth from the still-smoldering rooftop. He managed to find what was left of the roof-top exit. Although it was awfully dark, he stepped inside to the top of a very tentative landing.

Getting off the rooftop...

He was out of the rain, which was good. He gave himself a big shake – as  big a shake as a little pup could give. Trying not to think of where he was heading, he hopped down the first flight of steps to the next  questionable landing. He paused to look back up at the fading moonlight, and with a sudden strange sense of panic, ran as fast as he could down the rest of the steps, running and skittering around corners until he came to a partly open metal door. Being as small as he was, he was able to push and squeeze his way through the opening, and tumbled out into a shadowy, filthy alley.

END OF CHAPTER THREE, PART I

COPYRIGHTED 2011, USA.. no part of this text or images may be used without permission.

Written by STEPHEN HARRIS  & Val Sivilli

Chapter 2, part 3

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As he lay resting in his bed of warm, but rapidly cooling ash, the little pup naturally wondered who he was, where he was, and how he had come to be there.

The scene was utter devastation – the fire had taken everything recognizable.

He rose on legs that were still a little shaky, and looked around him. The scene was utter devastation – the fire had taken everything recognizable, and reduced it to ash. There was still a light rain falling, and from some spots here and there, steam rose into the night sky. As the moon came out from behind it’s thin veil of cloud, the puppy could see, all around what was left of the rooftop that had been his home, the shapes of eggs, just like his had been, in all different colors. They all sparkled and glowed in the faint moonlight, and the pup knew that there was mystery and excitement hidden within each one.

END OF CHAPTER TWO, part 3

COPYRIGHTED 2011, USA.. no part of this text or images may be used without permission.

Written by STEPHEN HARRIS  & Val Sivilli

Chapter 2, part 2

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When the smoke cleared, there was little left on the rooftop but the crystalline eggs, still clean and shiny despite the conflagration that had roared so recently all around them, seemingly polished to a deeply glowing sheen by the flames. As the ash cooled, there was movement inside the pink egg. The shell seemed to soften and mould itself to the creature that was now coming to life inside.

Very gradually, the shape of whatever it was inside took on form, and began to push at the confines of it’s container.A tiny claw began to tear a small hole, gradually widening as a white paw forced it’s way out, followed bit by bit, by a tiny, pure white puppy, fumbling and wriggling it’s way out of the shell.

 

The shell itself seemed to be changing, as the puppy emerged. As he emerged, the shell behind him reformed into a crystalline-shape, in a bright pink, textured and deep.

When the little puppy, just barely opening his eyes, pressed his nose against the shell, he was at once filled with a rush of deep happiness and the sense that everything was going to be all right. Not that he had been worried, but he felt an overpowering desire to share this feeling – completely new to his tiny puppy brain, but somehow fully understood – with every other creature he came across.

END OF CHAPTER TWO, part 2

COPYRIGHTED 2011, USA.. no part of this text or images may be used without permission.

Written by STEPHEN HARRIS  & Val Sivilli

Chapter 2 – part I, the Birth of Happy Dog

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Legend has it that Happy Dog was born out of the ashes and debris of the conflagration that had consumed his Phoenix mother.

Consumed by Fire.

She had known for some time that her end was near and had built her fancy nest made from silver and golden threads on this lofty rooftop.

..this lofty rooftop....

She laid a single pink egg, followed by the promise of an entire brood.

 

Phoenix with her single pink egg atop this lofty building.

There was a cool rain falling, and she let the water saturate her wings as she spread them wide to surround her nest.  Her feathers collected the water in miniature streams and tiny pools all over her body. And when the rain stopped, she gently flapped her wings for the cascading water to offer her crystal-like eggs their first bath.  She could not help but smile when they shivered ever so slightly from the cool waters’ sudden contact with the warm shell, a pure glossy pink crystal shell. She could almost see through the shell to the living beings inside as it began to wriggle, as if whatever was inside could not wait to emerge into the world.

Her Babies' First Bath.

. It made her deeply happy to know that, once again, as had happened so many times before, her offspring would soon take wing and spread the magic and wonder of The Firebird through the sleeping world.

 

Flying Crystal Eggs with Wings.

Despite the cool of the rain, the evening seemed incredibly warm.  There was a furnace-like heat penetrating through roof of the building were her nest was perched. And it all happened so fast with more fury than any of the previous events of the day.  A sudden fire engulfed the nest from every direction.  She met her fate with a long loud and beautiful cry that echoed far and wide. It rattled and ricocheted inside the shell of her semi-conscious offspring.

Consumed.

END OF CHAPTER 2, PART 1, THE BIRTH OF HAPPY DOG

Written by Stephen Harris, Created & Illustrated by Val Sivilli

Protected by Copyright Laws of the United States,  COPYRIGHTED, 2011

No part may be used without the author’s permission.

Happy Dog… Chapter I . written by Stephen Harris & Val Sivilli

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The writing on the scrap of paper was barely legible. It was a square of mostly white paper, stuck to the tiled wall of the subway station with a piece of chewed gum. Each time a train passed through the station the scrap of paper fluttered a bit, like a prayer flag. It was stuck to the wall about eye level above one of the wooden benches. If one took a moment to reach out, touch the paper, smooth it out against the wall, and look with an unprejudiced eye, the single word, “YES,” written as if with a piece of charcoal, was not hard to see. The paper was a bit crumpled, a good distance from the pristine sheet of copier paper it had once been, but it somehow had character, as if whoever had stuck it up on the wall had put a great deal of soul and heart into choosing that word – YES – and choosing to hang it in that particular spot, and – most significant in so ego-driven a city – not leaving any clue as to who had written it. If one was not in a hurry, not preparing to squeeze into an uptown train, or hurrying to the stairs to find an empty cab,

“if one took a moment to look at the sign with a kind of depth normally reserved for looking at an impressionist painting”

 

If One took a Moment...

in a museum, one might begin to grasp the meaning of the word YES. It might have been an affirmation of grand proportion, or perhaps just a personal reminder, left as a riddle, a zen-master like koan, to be taken away and pondered over.

In any case, there it was, to be taken for what it was. Or simply ignored, as such things so often are in the city, as just another bit of trash, something stuck there by the force of the wind from a passing train. Maybe it had been left there by some deranged person who had no awareness of any possible higher significance but only as a personal talisman. How long it would stay there stuck to the wall was dependent on the holding power of the wad of chewing gum, the nature of the passersby – either giving into or ignoring an urge to rip it down – or just random chance.

If one was a most observant type, one might have noticed, sitting quietly at the bottom of the stairs, a scruffy mostly white dog, with a brown blaze on his forehead and muzzle, like a palomino pony. He was just sitting there, an unusual enough thing to see in a subway station, made a little more unusual for being unescorted. He seemed to be watching the sign stuck to the wall, or watching to see who noticed it and what their reactions were. That might seem a little far fetched to imagine a dog taking any interest in a sign on the wall, but there he was.

Then In an Instant....

Then, in an instant, there was just the sound of doggy toenails echoing up the stairs the flash of a the wagging tip of a white tail, as he jogged up out of the subway and into the street, and with a flutter of white wings, he was gone.

 

If anyone had noticed he had been there at all,

 

Happy Dog

END OF CHAPTER ONE.

COPYRIGHTED 2011, USA.. no part of this text or images may be used without permission.

Written by STEPHEN HARRIS  & Val Sivilli

 

happy dog

Y’know, my life is really interesting. There are not too many dogs out there with wings. Pigs, all over the place, but dogs.. no. And the way I came into the world is really amazingly uncanny and possibly a bit unbelievable. So, soon, very soon, the first chapter of my story will be posted here. You will be able to share the story as I unfold it to you.

We REALLY hope you like the stuff we will be offering to have for yourself that can bring the magic of my birth into your life.

Peace on the Wing… Happy Dog.