Mia was supposed to grow.
Both of her parents were big dogs - her mother was a black lab, her father was a sheepdog - and when she was tiny, I looked at her paws and thought that can't be right.
Because whilst her paws felt enormous as they pressed into my back in the night, they have always been these tiny, dainty things.
And when she curled up into my lap, and it didn't matter how much I moved - she was out like a light - I thought please don't grow too big for this.
And she didn't.
And she still curls up with her head in my lap.
But the exhaustion of puppyhood has long gone, and every moment is a wonder, so it only lasts for a few precious, catch-me-if-you-can, seconds.
