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.