by Nanette Piotrowski

Created on: October 15, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I have always been a cat person, so when my husband suggested that we get a dog, I was a little apprehensive. Growing up as a child we did have a Basenji which is an African breed that doesn't bark, but that was the only dog that we had ever had. My husband decided that he wanted an Akita and checked with several breeders. An Akita is a Japanese breed that the Emperors of Japan used to fight bears for their amusement.

We drove about 30 miles to the home of the breeder to look over several pups in the litter. The breeder introduced us to the Sire and Dam which was an experience in itself. The Sire was 200 pounds, fawn and black with a black mask and the Dam was 150 pounds, red with a black mask and they both had the characteristic curled tail over the back, like an Alaskan Husky. The black masks of the face gave you the feeling of not stepping too close and the size of their paws reinforced that feeling.

The breeder took us to where the five puppies were and they were all gorgeous. They all had coloring and markings as the parents, so it was hard to choose one. One particular puppy walked over to me and sat on my foot, as if to say, "I'm the one." My husband said, "Oh great, I'm the one who wanted a dog, and he picks you!" The puppy was fawn and white with a black mask and had the biggest feet that I had ever seen. The breeder said that you could tell by the size of the feet on how large the dog was going to get. My first thought was, oh boy, how big.

We got the AKC registered Pedigree papers, paid the $600 for the six-week old puppy, and headed for home. When we got home, our three cats were not thrilled with the new intruder, and proceeded to whip up on him. They circled him and took turns lashing out at him and did a good job of knocking him down several times before he thought that this must be some kind of a game. Needless to say, the first time he reached out with one of those big paws of his and sent a cat flying, the game was over.

We decided to name him Kaibutsu (ka-boot-soo), which in Japanese means "little monster"; because of his big feet. The following morning started his training as a work dog because we were going to be moving onto 20 acres of land with livestock and because of wild dogs, bobcats, poachers and other critters; it was going to be critical to have a good guard dog.

By the time Kaibutsu was 9 months old, he performed every command without question and was a formidable opponent at 100 pounds. A year later, my husband died and if it were

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