My Big Baby Bear Dog

This dog is my favorite.
I love him so much so if you've found your way here lucky you because you get to see and read about his majestic beastliness.

Just look at that meat head. Beautiful.

His name is Hiroto. It means 'big boy' in Japanese and he truly embodies it. He is a purebred Akita Inu. His mom was purer white than him and his father was a brindle. You can see black furs here and there if you look closely and there are gentle red markings that are really pronounced if you see him against a pure white snow environment.  His gorgeous mane genuinely makes him look like a wolf at full stature and his fur shimmers in the light like a fake vampire. 

He's sooooooo amazing, the best ever. I'll fight anyone about him.

He loves going in the car, or anywhere really, and hates to be left behind so I really try to take him with us whenever possible. In the summer of 2024, my family rented out an officer's house on the shore of Sandy Hook that let us bring him. Every morning as the sun rose, I'd sneak out with just him and walk somewhere new on the peninsula for him to discover all new sights and smells. He hates the ocean or at least being in it, I think. We only took him with us swimming once early in the week we stayed and he nearly refused to stick his big baby paws in the ocean. Perhaps he hated the sinking feeling as the waves on the shore washed away the sand under them. It happened once and then he was like ✌️ bruv. Dummy sat with me eating mussels in the sand while the boys went in the water.

He tips the scale at just under or over 100lbs, which is average-ish for all Akita, but he's genuinely a big guy even among his littermates. Neither of his parents touched near that but the vet routinely insists that while he is certainly pleasantly plump he is in perfect health and stature. I (and I believe his breeder) genuinely expected and hoped for a 65-70lb dog tops but all of our friends and family were like 🤔 them paws is huge and he is going to be massive. 

As a teenager, I really dug the idea of having a shibe after following menswear dog for years. I love the doge shibe and I've been a general japanophile my whole life. Everything I and my family loves probably came from Japan and while unintentional, it lead to the shibe love... but shibes are psychos and I don't need that kind of chaos in my life, but I DID need a dog finally. I worked on an Akita Inu for Second Life and fell madly in love with the idea of this royal protector that could take down a bear but also is basically a house lump and looked like a majestic wolf. I did a ton of research while working on the digital version and decided it was time and this was gonna be my boy. 

He loves exploring new places so I make an effort to at least twice a week get lost somewhere in the woods or walking around with him in the city somewhere. You can tell how happy he is when he swings his big, silly head from side to side with his tongue swinging wildly as we walk down a trail and he gets a whiff of some other dog's piss to shove his snout in. And he always has to shit down a hill sideways. I'm told that's for ergonomic comfort.

Anyway, that's my dog. He's my second son and animal familiar. More importantly, I'm his willing human servant. I'm so grateful to get to spend part of my life with him in it.