A young artist's life with wolf cub (2)

（China Daily）  08:33, January 18, 2013  

The book's 200,000 initial printing sold out just three months after its launch in 2012. A film adaptation is in the works.

"Wolves are not dogs, and they're never pets. They're untamable, independent and have their own characters," Li says, showing the scar of a bite on her right hand.

"My wolf taught me a real spirit of self-reliance and to respect individual features," she says. Though she hasn't mingled with the wolf for months, she can still mimic its grunts and howls during the interview.

Li was born in Ya'an, a city in southwestern Sichuan, to a teacher's family. She left home at the age of 8 and went alone to the provincial capital Chengdu, where she sharpened her skills in drawing.

Since her teens, she has been able to support herself while keeping up with her studies. Always an animal lover, "I'm keen on observing and copying them," Li says.

Although she has a degree in foreign language, she now lives a freelance painter's life.

In April 2010, Li went to Zoige to seek inspiration for her art. And in the highland's pasture area, she heard about a litter of six wolf cubs whose father was killed and mother fatally poisoned.

Li tracked down the only surviving cub, which was then faking death for self-protection.