I promised a friend that I'd send some pics of Tibetan Mastiffs. Here are two from last year. I was in the field working on a grassland study and talking to folks about possible solutions to the problem of brown bears breaking in and pillaging nomads' winter homes. It was a good time- clipping grasses, sedges, and forbs with scissors while being swept over by four consecutive thundering hail storms, being watched by wolves, and stumbling across wild ass bones and abandoned nomad homes. That night we helped herd the yak home and were rewarded with an astounding sunset and a homemade yak-meat and noodle dinner. Sometime in the night the dogs went crazy and we all went outside to observe a large black silhouette lumbering away in the dim moonlight. Probably an Ursus arctos.
The close-up of the puppy is from summer 2004. I was out in the field doing some participatory-rural appraisals. The puppy belonged to a doctor who made about $500 a year. I think he either lived in a livestock shelter or ran a medical dispensary out of it. He made ends meet by working as a motorcycle repairman. Anyway, that's his puppy. Can't remember if Marc or I took that shot.
