Is a dog really a man's best friend?

Everyone seems to think a dog is a man's best friend and I am going to call bullshit. Yeah, I said it. A dog is not a man's best friend. Let me tell you a little about our main dog, Nala. Nala came to my husband(fiance at the time) and I's lives at a point that was so fundamentally well timed that I can not justify how it all happened. Nala has always known what we needed, before we needed it and that started from day one. A year into our marriage we were told we would never have a biological child of our own by three different doctors, including a specialist. Nala had already been like our child at that point but after that, she was our everything. We had two other dogs at the time, Molly and Dolly, two yorkshire terriers that I grew up with. However, Nala has always been 'our girl'. Well when we flipped the bird to all three doctors and saw a fertility doctor, we held onto Nala as my crying towel after two years of fertility treatments; the ups and downs we went through. Nala was always there. Fast forward to the arrival of my oldest son, Sean. Nala took her protective duties seriously, even alerting me when Sean choked on chips as a 3yr old. Sean had been sick with a cold and coughing anyway so it wasn't weird when he started coughing on the couch. It wasn't until Nala jumped to her feet and started to frantically lick Sean that I realized something was wrong. One hard punch to the back and he was throwing up and crying. Fast forward to 2018, I had twins. I had post postpartum depression, severe depression and suicidal tendencies. To make things worse, I wanted to kill my boys. I was hearing them scream, even when they were not screaming. When I was home alone, rocking in the rocking chair, covering my ears, crying and begging myself to not hurt the boys, it was Nala that was at my feet, whimpering to go out and go to the bathroom. So I got up and let her out, standing on the porch, crying but breathing. We bought a second dog in 2022. Ellie is a Silver "Lab". She is dumber than a wet paper bag of rocks. I'm not kidding. But man is she sweet. She is also very energetic and it never ends. Well, until Nala tells her it's done. If Ellie gets too rough with the kids, Nala stands in, every single time. Nala had puppies once... it was a disaster. She wanted to be with us more than her pups. They have always said, a female dog will protect the people, a male will protect the land. It's 100% true in Nala's case. It doesn't matter where we go or what we are doing, she has her eyes on me. This dog has never let me down. Well here I am tonight in a small hotel in Cobleskill, NY and I have Nala laying on the floor, looking very much asleep but I see her ears, they are on the door. Last year I came to this show and had my 8yr old with me and we had an issue at the hotel. Thankfully, Sean didn't wake up but I was up and I spent the rest of the night up in the chair, against the door of the room. Last year there was a drug deal gone wrong outside the door of my room, fighting, threatening to kill each other, talk of using a gun; eventually having a physical altercation that ended with someone getting cut with a knife and the police showing up. So this year I didn't want to stay at this motel but it was the only one left and only one night so here I am. Now though, I have Nala laying between the two beds with her eyes on the door. I'm not worried tonight. Nala is 11yrs old, super arthritic, missing half a foot because she got in an argument with our lawn mower and her muzzle is now very grey. However, this dog refuses to quit, she will follow me to the darkest depths of the world without hesitation. So, is a dog really a man's best friend? I call bullshit. I think a dog is a requirement for all mankind. I think man is a dog's best friend and man is simply at the mercy of a dog's devotion. I am forever thankful to have this dog in our lives, in my children's lives and every day that I look into Nala's brown eyes I am reminded of what love truly is.