Abby is in Doggy Heaven.

Abby

Age 10, ~2002 - September 15, 2012

Your Watch Has Ended

Ever on guard, ever beautiful, ever graceful

Nickname: Abbadabs, The Gail, Abigail Q (And The Q Stands fo

Abby came to us as a friend for a Lab we had at the time. She was serious even as a puppy, and constantly reminded said Lab, with her bark, that using the swimming in the middle of winter was a foolish idea. She came to use that same bark to alert us of backyard possums and squirrels, then of activity on the street she found unacceptable. She was a regal dog with standards, for herself and for her job.

She was a pound puppy, selected from hundreds because of how patiently, regally, she sat among the poor barking, gate-banging, frustrated souls in the other kennel. She was nervous and scared herself, though she tried not to show it, and peed over her adoptive human father as he carried her out of the cage. We'd like to think she chose us.

We almost lost her to distemper and kennel cough, but ever resilient, she made it through, and spent her ten years with us poised and ready for action. She was a light sleeper. She enjoyed being brushed, petted, admired. She was the most beautiful dog.

She would walk as fast as you let her, and for a certainty could out-walk you. Once, she pulled her human sister on her rollerblades on a 2 mile loop in 8 minutes, and would have done it again. Her energy and her sense of duty gave her an intensity, an intensity that was in her gaze. Beady, we sometimes called her, and if she wanted her walk, and wanted it then, she would beady you until your shoes were tied and the leash was in your hand.

Her excited spin to get out and walk, and her "WrooWrooWroo" bark that sounded, to her humans, like "I love you," were the glimpses into her playful side, which the addition of our puppy this year brought out in her in full. They would race around the backyard, her with her light, springing grace, him with his galumph, and she would turn on a dime with a 180 spin.

She protected that puppy fiercely, like she protected us. Never once did she hurt a human or another dog, but to walk with her and to be guarded by her while you slept was to know that she would die for you if the cause arose.

In the end, she died peacefully, without warning, on one Saturday night, near where her human was outside sleeping to escape the summer heat. That human wonders if Abby was watching out for her very last breaths. It would have been the most Abby-like thing to do.

It's been more than a week now, and to ease the ache in our hearts, we've adopted a shelter puppy who reminds us of our Abigail Q, a black and white shelter puppy who's quiet and majestic in her own way, to pick up the watch now that Abby's shift has at last ended. If there is a heaven, we know Abby can rest at last, knowing her people are safe, if missing her dearly, if wishing we could walk with her one more time.