Dog Fight
“In very early 2020, I was in Lumbini, Nepal. It’s a small town built around this complex of ruins that was once the palatial home of Siddhartha Gautama, the Bodi tree is located there. I was staying in a cheap hotel along a muddy road leading out of the city and was the only guest in the building. Many stray dogs roamed the streets of that quarter at night and you’d often hear them barking or getting into fights …
… This one night was particularly bad, a low fog had settled on the road and the dogs were out in force, howling & barking. Out of nowhere came this bellowing roar, one so loud and sonorous, I felt it in my chest. Then, a vacuum of complete silence; all I could think of were ways to keep whatever had made that sound outside. The next day, I heard that a tiger had wandered over from the nearby reserve along the lake and eaten a few of those stray dogs.”