This was supposed to be a six month update post on life with Izzy in it but, between the trauma of breaking up with my therapist and trying to write that out of my system, it’s become more like an eight month update. I’m not sure how that much time with my baby has passed already but I’m so grateful to have found her, that we made the decision to bring her home. She’s snuggled her way into my heart and I adore her more than I really understood to be possible. As well as being a consistent source of joy, she’s an incredibly grounding presence and although I’m not sure I can describe it, she gives me something that I desperately need. I love my cats dearly but the relationships are very different and the way Izzy loves to be close, responds to my emotions, clearly tries to make me feel better when I’m struggling… it helps me in a very specific way and I’m so, so grateful for that.

If you’ve been following me for a while (on here or on either Instagram or TikTok), you may remember that I got a puppy – a Pomchi (half Pomeranian, half Chihuahua) called Izzy – last September. Back then, she was an excitable handful of fur with huge ears and there was nothing she loved more than a snuggle. And now, suddenly eight months have passed and her personality has become even bigger than her ears…

Now, at almost ten months old, she’s become such a character. She’s the sweetest little soul and she’s almost always up for a snuggle (sometimes the desire to play is just too strong). I completely adore her and she completely adores me; she always wants to be, at the very least, in the same room as me (and preferably pressed up against me) and she jumps up into my hands when I reach for her. It’s so cute. She hated sleeping apart from me, no matter how many different strategies we tried, so she does just sleep in my bed with me. I love it and she seems to as well; I worried that that would become a problem when I needed to be away but she’s handled it fine, as long as she’s with someone she knows. She’s also become a proper little guard dog and she takes her role of defending our house very seriously. I should’ve seen that coming since protectiveness is a core trait in both Pomeranians and Chihuahuas. She’s especially protective of me, which is very cute but it is a behaviour that we need to work on: the amount of potentially scary barking just isn’t necessary, especially when that level of protectiveness hasn’t been required once so far. But she’s young and bright and we’re working on it; I’m not worried.

At only a few months, she was curious and excitable and smart and now she’s even more so. She’s so quick to pick up on what’s going on – especially when I’m upset – and she’s learned so many tricks: my personal favourites are ‘high five’ and ‘spin,’ both of which she picked up so fast. She’s really good with a lot of the more basic ones too and between her getting better at communicating what she wants or needs and us getting better at interpreting that behaviour, we’ve worked out a good routine together in which she really seems to thrive. She’s gotten so much more confident too and she’s really grown into herself (although not her ears – they are still huge and it does make me smile to think about whether, when she cocks her head in a certain way, she’s listening to messages from NASA).

She’s still desperate to be friends with the cats. And although they’re all much more settled and able to coexist reasonably peacefully, most of the cats still keep their distance – her bounciness is clearly still a bit too unpredictable for them – but they all stand their ground when she rushes up to them. They’re not quite ready to be best friends. But Lucy, the eldest, has started to engage with her, on her own terms of course. She’s starting to play and seems to enjoy provoking Izzy, only to leap out of her reach. So they’re not there yet, but you can see the relationships growing. It’s a very interesting process to watch, to see them learn how to communicate and how to create and respect each other’s boundaries. They’ve made a lot of progress since the early days and it gives me hope that, sometime soon, those relationships will grow even further and they’ll be able to interact gently and affectionately.

We’ve been able to leave her alone for longer periods, alone and with other people, and we just got back from two weeks away in Nashville: Izzy stayed at home with an experienced house sitter so that both she and the cats wouldn’t have their routines disturbed too much. I was a little worried about her being without us for so long but, as I knew deep down, she would be fine. And she was, but she was beside herself to see us again. That was a very joyful reunion, on both sides. And we’ve been glued together ever since, which has been lovely. She’s been grinning almost non-stop and it’s beyond adorable.

I can’t believe that I’ve had her by my side for eight months now. As I write this, she’s tucked into my body with her chin resting in the crook of my elbow, snoring softly. She’s soft and warm and perfectly content. And with her next to me, as close as she can get, everything feels a little less overwhelming.