CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Every so often, a Nora Ephron quote pops up in my Instagram feed: “When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”

Nora Ephron was wise.

We have a 15-year-old son and an almost 13-year-old daughter, both of whom periodically despise us.

Thankfully, we also have a 5-year-old, 85-pound Golden Retriever with a persistently goofy grin, who never talks back, never yells and never fails to answer when I call his name.

Sure, Rory occasionally steals food (he particularly loves bagels), and I constantly have to clean up after him. But that’s true of the kids too.

If it seems like everyone has a dog, it’s because we’ve reached the highest number of dogs in the United States, ever, according to the American Ve

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