The Annual Dog Issue

September 2025

The Lessons of the Dog

Editor’s Note

Anyone who owns a dog knows there are only two kinds of people in this world – those who love dogs and those who don’t. We, of course, are with the group who love dogs, and are rewarded in turn by their utter devotion. As Ricky Gervais would say, there is nothing better than a dog. They are perfect – and Gervais’ only answer to whether there is a god in the universe.

This issue marks our seventh anniversary of the Dog Issue. With each one, we pick, randomly, a half-dozen Gableites who pose with their pooches. We also run a themed feature (this year it’s about working dogs) and try to add in a few canine versions of our regular columns – like “Quick Bites” for dogs, or dog therapies for our “Wellness” department.

For us, dogs represent what human beings ought to be like – loving, loyal, and self-sacrificing. They literally love their masters more than they love themselves. And our love for a dog is something special, which study after study demonstrates. My favorite is one that shows how patients recovering from cardiac surgery live an average of five years longer if they own a dog, versus those who do not.

Dogs can also teach us a few things about relationships. Remember how easy it was to make friends you were young? How unguarded you were? Dogs are like that.

Unless they are neurotic or trained as killers, they are immediately affectionate with someone they’ve just met. As adults, we left that kind of innocence behind long ago.

Or take jealousy. If someone came up to your significant other and began showering them with affection, you’d no doubt be jealous, or at least upset. If someone comes up to your dog and pets them affectionately, you don’t feel threatened, but rather proud and pleased.

So, learn the lessons only a dog can teach by getting yourself down to the Miami-Dade Animal Services Pet Adoption and Protection Center in Doral (3599 NW 79th Ave.), or to the Humane Society of Greater Miami in North Miami Beach (1311 NW 57th Ave.), and adopt some loving little pup. Yes, you’ll find yourself a little less able to travel at the drop of a hat, and you’ll need to be concerned with their well-being every day. But the same thing can be said for having children: no pain, no gain. The rewards are worth it.

Left to Right: Ruby Donner, Togo Scott, Bella Faber and Orbit Raucci