I had a big Akita Yoshi who was fabulous. I loved him. We lost him when he was 12 and I've never been able to replace him. Normally most people lose a pet and get another and keep going on. But it just felt wrong to me it felt disloyal.
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap it consoles it distracts it excites it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.