Crops & Clips: Big dogs and Great Egrets

My weekly potpourri gathered from the archives features... white egrets, big dogs and an angry cloud.

CRITTERS: Tibetan Mastiffs. 

I took these photos just after I drove up the driveway of our daughter's home. They recognized me from a distance and promptly resumed resting in the shade. They have never tried to jump over the four-foot fence, though I bet they could do it easily.

Our daughter's two Tibetan Mastiffs, though very independent and stubborn, are very gentle with children, other dogs and even strangers if they sense that they are welcome visitors. They spend most of the day sleeping and we must step over their bodies. If the doorbell rings they may look up and go back to sleep. They are very large and during the winter have heavy manes, making Agramonte look like a lion. Indeed, a zoo in China tried to fool the public by putting one in a cage marked "Lion." This breed has the distinction of being the world's most expensive dog. In China, one sold for $2 milion. 

This is Agramonte, an intact male six years old, about 150 pounds.



Sagua is an altered female, a year younger. She shows black and brown, the other main color type. Other strains can be entirely black, chocolate or very rarely, pure white. 



The children are rushing the season by getting Sagua ready for Halloween.



Linking to CAMERA CRITTERS,

 Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS, and 

GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa). 

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SKYWATCH: Suddenly out of a blue sky as we exited our motel--

Roll Cloud looking east over Canyon, Texas.
November 4, 2013

Roll Cloud looking west over Canyon, Texas, November 4, 2013

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY 

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REFLECTIONS: The long and short of them--

This Great Egret cast a very l-o-o-o-ng reflection from the other side of the Fox River.
Kane County, Illinois, September 26, 2014



Two days earlier, at the same location, probably the same egret hunted in very still water.




Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS