Dog resting on ger threshold

Dog in ger camp.

This is a dog that was wandering (more often slinking, actually) around the ger camp we stayed at in Harhorin in the summer of 2005. He snuck into my ger a couple of times, but wouldn't take any offered food or water. Here he is forlornly watching out the ger door, most probably waiting for someone to come and chase him away. Mongolians traditionally treat dogs as working animals, so ones that aren't actually working often tend to get chased or have sticks or stones thrown at them. (They can be rather vicious, so this isn't just random cruelty.) In fact, this one was chased out of my ger by one of the women working at the camp, despite my assurances that I didn't mind him visiting.