When Sharav was a puppy, I sometimes used to leave movies playing at home for him when I went to work during the day, to let him hear the voices and feel like he was around people, so he wouldn’t get lonely and destructive.
Then I discovered audiobooks, and joined Audible for long enough to get a free download of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for him (technically for me, but we enjoyed it together) – really getting my money’s worth. It was read by the world’s very finest audiobook-reader, David Timson, and Sharav probably listened to the whole thing 100 times.
![Standing still for a portrait. Tel Aviv, March 2009.](https://i0.wp.com/sharav.dog/wp-content/uploads/4CE51095-92A9-4625-B721-369F217D886A_1_105_c-jpeg.webp?resize=991%2C793)