When a thin black and white Collie, lying quietly in her cage at the Rescue Centre, caught the eye of a family looking for a companion for their own dog, life as they had known it was irrevocably changed. Overturning all their accumulated wisdom of how to live with dogs, Sally, who had been found running scared on a city street, stretches the tolerance of her new owners to the limit. Charting the first eighteen months of life with a confused dog, Learning to Listen also celebrates and reflects on other beloved dogs, is lightly laced with literary references and the textures of daily life but above all illustrates how a seemingly insurmountable problem can reveal itself as an unexpected invitation into a deeper understanding.