Old Friends Senior Dogs: Charlotte - our first rescue dog

We were a one dog home. We'd had our collie, Nikki, for 10 years, and when he went to the bridge we got Ozkar.....we never intended to have more dogs.
One month later, along came Charlotte....
On my way to work in downtown Nashville, I saw traffic slowing ahead on a busy five lane street, Charlotte Avenue. I saw what looked like a small cat in the middle turn lane and slowed down. When I looked closer, there was a tiny black puppy wandering straight down the road, oblivious to the traffic going by. Automatically, I pulled into a gas station and, somehow, miraculously, the little puppy was safely next to my car before I could even get out. I swooped her up and took her to work with me. Many of the people that I worked with were out of the office for a trade show that week, and anyway, they were dog lovers too. What did it matter, now I had this little girl and was going to do what I could. She spent the day in a US Mail Box, which was about the size of a milk carton, under my desk. It wasn't until the afternoon that she started to climb her way out into my office to explore.
A trip to the vet that night put her at 3 pounds. She grew like a weed, outgrowing collars almost as quickly as we could buy them. Within only a week or two she was 10 pounds and just kept going. Our vet at the time predicted that she would be about 20 pounds, but she surpassed that and just kept on growing. She's now about 75 pounds.
When Charlotte was six months old, I woke up to find her panting and shaking uncontrollably on the bed next to me. Michael was out of town at the time and I was terrified for her. What I later learned was a seizure, lasted for several minutes and left her dazed and wandering aimlessly for the next hour or so. Our vet said that it may be an isolated, or at least rare, incidence. We hoped so. Over the next few weeks, the seizures grew in intensity and frequency. She sometimes had 3 or 4 grand mal seizures a day. Charlotte was put on Phenobarbital to control them. It took another 6 months to get the dosage level correct, but it did finally happen. Charlotte has now been on the same dosage of Phenobarbital for almost 11 years and we have never seen another seizure since she was just over a year old. We guess that it was those rough first few weeks of her life that stressed her system and caused the seizures. We are thankful and amazed that she has been able to live a normal life after witnessing those seizures during that first year of her life.
Charlotte grew both in size and into our hearts. She and Ozkar were play buddies, getting into more trouble than two puppies should. She rounded off the coffee table corners, brought our Christmas presents out the doggy door into the back yard, ate our son's retainer, and one day ate the heel off of my interview shoes five minutes before I had to leave for the interview.
As our pack grew, Charlotte became the calm, stable alpha. She never snipped or got angry, just gave a quick growl when anyone got out of line. They understood.
At almost 12 years old, Charlotte is slowing down now. She has distinguished looking white highlights on her face and has trouble coordinating her back legs, especially when she gets excited. She can't get up in the chairs or on the bed as easily as she once could, but she's still getting around and makes the trips up the hill for treats several times a day. She relinquished her alpha position without incident to Ginger a while back and is content to sit with the pack and get head and belly rubs as often as she wants.
Time sure goes by fast.....