Gabby

Seventeen years ago, a very young Stephanie was taken to a house by her parents to pick out a Schnauzer puppy for Christmas. In a box in the garage was a litter of puppies all clamoring for her attention. Back in the corner of the box though, shivering and not participating in all the excitement, was the runt of the litter.
Stephanie picked her out and named her Gabby.
Gabby became an integral part of the family quickly; Marcus was only 3 at the time, so she tried to show that she was more important than him by tearing up his stuff only. She grew very close to Steph and to Melody, getting so excited even at the end whenever she saw them.
Gabby moved from Oklahoma to North Carolina with the Cox family, and saw the addition of a big chocolate lab named Maggie.
Gabby was always a persnickety dog, and filled the role of grumpy old lady quite well. I met Gabby 10 years ago, and she was under the table taking turns growling at me and Maggie.
It took some time for Gabby to get used to me, but once she realized I wasn't all that bad, I became one of her favorites.
When Steph and I got married, Gabby came with us and served as our first pet together. She slept on the bed with us, snuggled on the couch, and loved when we dumped clothes fresh out of the dryer on her. She tried to protect us as much as a 17 pound dog could. When I had a motorcycle wreck and was laid up for about a week, Gabby laid on my chest and growled at anyone who came close to me.
She's taken our life changes in stride. We adopted Boscoe 5 years ago as a replacement Gabby, and she took to him quite nicely. A couple of years after that we added a cat to the mix, and while not a big fan of him, she still managed. Gretel came 2 years later and Gabby stayed ever loyal and fine. She even handled the addition of Sadie quite well, and even let Sadie pet her (until it hurt. Then she kept her distance for a while.).
Over the past 6 months or so, Gabby started having seizures on a more regular basis. She had seizures throughout her life, but they were spread out over years and were very minor. The ones that started recently were closer together and much more severe. After a number of blood tests and vet visits, she started a regimen of medicine daily to keep the seizures under control. We knew that eventually the medicine wouldn't be able to stop them, but it bought us more time with her.
Saturday night Gabby had two seizures that seemed to be pretty severe. We were at the farm, and Melody and I took turns sitting up with her while she walked off the effects of them. Once she got settled down, I laid on the couch with her. Then the seizures started happening quickly, without time for her to recover.
After the 6th seizure, Gabby's breathing became very shallow and eventually stopped early Sunday morning. While we knew it was going to happen, it was still a very difficult thing to deal with. We buried her at the farm, and are now getting used to not having Gabby around anymore.
It's a long story for a dog, I know. But Gabby was an important part of our lives, and she will be missed greatly.

9 months, quick update

It's been too long since I've updated. Things have been crazy though. I'll be posting pictures soon in a photo dump, but here are some of the things that we've been up to for the past month:

• Sadie is crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything that feels remotely stable. She is going to be a force to be reckoned with once she starts walking, which should be pretty soon.
• She's finally saying Dada, and it melts my heart. It's her favorite thing to say now. She has also taken up the habit of yelling along with the blender when I make our smoothies in the morning. Hilarious.
• We made it through her first cold. It was so sad to see her upset because she couldn't figure out how to breathe through her mouth when her nose was stopped up.
• Things at the farm are progressing nicely. We put the gates and barbed wire up on the fence this past weekend and will start the goat shelter soon.
• We bought our first chickens (2 bantams) and Alan and Melody have purchased 24 more chicks for egg laying.
• We also have started making our own wine. We bottled our first batch (30 bottles) last week and are starting Chardonnay this week.
• We've started eating cleaner, and it's been great. We're eating essentially primal or paleo, and feeling great. I mentioned smoothies in the morning, and they really help me feel tons better going through my day. It's frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and bananas, 2 stalks of Kale, 2 big handfuls of spinach, coconut milk (unsweetened), chia seeds and fennel seeds. All organic, and it tastes great.
• We're meeting with a realtor this weekend to put our house up on the market. We're ready to move to the farm and get started on building up our own farm on a plot of land. We plan to have our own goats, chickens and garden. The plan is to get it all set up over the next few years, so that when it's time for Sadie to go to school Steph can homeschool her.
• We said goodbye to a wonderful friend and companion this weekend. I'll post that separately.

As I said, pictures will come soon. But that's what we've been up to.