I Didn’t Even Like Dogs. Then Gizmo Happened.
I want to be very clear about something: I was not a dog person.
I know. I know. But it’s true. I was a pharmacist living my life in Pittsburgh — working long hours, making high stakes decisions, coming home exhausted — and the last thing I thought I needed was a dog. Dogs were loud. Dogs were messy. Dogs were other people’s thing.
And then I found Gizmo online.
I don’t know how to explain what happened when I saw her. I just knew. She was a Cavapoo — part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, part Poodle — with the kind of face that makes you forget every reasonable thought you’ve ever had. I looked at her photo and I thought: that’s my dog. I even bought her this puppy starter kit.
Just like that- thirty plus years of being a non-dog person, gone.
The Early Days
What nobody tells you about getting a dog when you’ve never had one is how completely they rewire you. Gizmo didn’t ease me into loving her. She just showed up and assumed the position — which was, and remains, the center of everything.
She came into a home that had no idea what it was doing. I had no dog experience, no frame of reference, no idea that I was about to become the kind of person who buys birthday hats for her Cavapoo and genuinely means it.
Gizmo knew, though. She always knows.
The Moment Everything Changed
I brought my son home from the hospital and I looked at Gizmo and I cried.
Not because I was overwhelmed with love for the new baby — though I was. Not because I was exhausted — though I absolutely was. I cried because I looked at Gizmo and realized that for the past few days I had been in complete survival mode, and she had gotten less of me than she was used to. New motherhood is exactly that — survival mode. You are just trying to keep everyone alive including yourself.
And in the middle of all of it I looked at my dog and felt genuine guilt that she hadn’t gotten enough attention.
That was the moment I knew. I wasn’t just a dog owner. I was completely, irreversibly, embarrassingly obsessed with Gizmo.
She has never once acknowledged this. She remains unbothered. As she should.
Our Thing
Every relationship has its thing. Ours is Real Housewives.
I know that sounds ridiculous. I don’t care. There is nothing better in this world than sitting down on the couch after a long day, pulling up Bravo, and having Gizmo settle in next to me like she also has opinions about the cast. She watches the screen. She tilts her head at the dramatic moments. She is, without question, the best viewing companion I have ever had.
She has never once told me my reality TV opinions are wrong. My husband cannot say the same.
Seven Years Later
Gizmo has a level of confidence that I frankly aspire to. Her dad is her person. Full stop. My husband knows it, I know it, the whole family knows it. I am a very respectable distant second and I have made my peace with that.
My son — the same one I brought home from the hospital while quietly apologizing to Gizmo — is chaos. She allows it. Because she’s that kind of dog.
Gizmo showed up and rewired my entire personality and I consider it one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
“I’m passionate about dogs, just not crazy about bitches.”– LVP
Gizmo out.
