Frank Bruni: Dogs will fix our broken democracy

Caring for dogs yank us outside of our narrowest selves, forces us to engage. In a perfect world, we’d do that on our own, Frank Bruni writes. (Ben Wiseman/The New York Times)When I adopted my dog, Regan, six months ago, I made a few promises to myself. First, I would never skimp on her exercise. Second, I would never feed her from the table or allow groveling in its vicinity. Third, I would never get lazy and use her as column fodder.

She’s 5-1/2 years old, about 48 pounds and mostly black, but with blazes of white in all the right places: her paws, her chest, the tip of her tail. “Border collie?” ask people who know the breed, but a DNA test said different. She’s mostly Australian shepherd…