In April of 2002 a huge black and white dog showed up in our neighborhood. Most of our neighbors were scared to death of him. Either because of our four rescued dogs, the dogs chasing him away, or my better half feeding him, he started hanging around our house. He slept on our front porch and hung around in our front yard except when out dogs were in the backyard. One day I guess he had enough and opened the back gate and came into the house. Debbie being so shocked seeing him there must have scared him and out the gate he went only to go lay down on the front porch. Knowing I couldn't have huge dog laying on my porch we decided what was one more dog even though he was huge. We had no idea what kind of dog he was so I took a picture to work and a girl there told me he was an Akita. A week ago I never heard of an Akita and now I was in the procession of one.
     A few days later we took him to the vet. We were kind of scared not knowing what kind of health he was in but we knew we had to get his shots and we wanted to make sure he didn't have any thing the other dogs could catch . The vet said what we had was he guessed a 10 year old purebred Akita. He said he was in good health for his age and what he thought he had been through. He said he thought he had been on his own for a very long time. The vet tech ask us what we were going to do with him. When we told him he looked at us like there was nothing in our heads. He said you are going to keep him. We said yea is there something wrong with that. He said no but it was almost unheard of for someone to take in an old dog especially one as big as him. He said we should watch him closely with our other dogs. He said he thought he had been a stud and they kicked him out when he couldn't perform. How sad.
     We brought him home and found out in short order what we had was the most well mannered, well behaved, best trained dog we ever saw. Tank, by this time we had named him, got along great with the other dogs. We took him ever where. Car shows, bingo's, to work. Everyone thought he was great. He was our alarm clock. Every morning at the same time I would have this big dog bark in my ear. His most favorite thing to do was for us to take him for a walk. He would hold that head high and have that tail across his back as to say look at me now. I have people. How stupid you were you when you could have had a proud Akita if you would have been smart. They ask if this was the same dog that was running the streets. When we told them they couldn't believe how gentle and smart he was. Tank was great and he had very proud parents we even adopted another Akita-mixed that we found abandoned. When you have 5 what is another one.
     Well time went by and I joined an Akita list. They told me that the Akita Nationals were going to be close to me and that they had a rescue parade at the event. I knew this was Tank. Nothing was going to keep me from taking him. We took Niki too. When we got there the place was full of all these great big beautifully show dogs. Here we were with our old man. He got out of the van and looked at all of them and you just felt like he knew where he was. The people knew he was old and told us how they loved the seniors. When it was time for the parade Tank walked into that ring like a champ. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when they told the story of this now 14-year-old Akita. Debbie was walking him and she swore he had been there before. You could almost see a smile on his face when he got his ribbon. A proud day for all of us.
     Not long after that Tank went down hill. We treated him for about 6 months for the pain in his legs and spine. While I had put it off the vet said it was time for the x-rays. They revealed what I had thought. Tank had a massive tumor. The vet said it was time. This was the saddest day in my life.
     While this would be fine Tank wasn't done with us yet. If you remember he was the reason we rescued Niki and he had other things in mind for us. After a couple months I decided it would be nice to have another Akita. I looked around and every time I found one that might make a good match something would go wrong and I never got them. Then one day it happen. Debbie's sons house caught on fire. He had a 10-year-old pitbull. While she was in good health he had been thinking he was going to put her down for a number of what I thought were silly reasons. He told Debbie he had no place to keep her and it would be a good time to put her down. He ask Debbie if she wanted to see her for the last time. Of course we went to see her and you know the rest of that story. We now have a pit bull. I honestly believe that is why I didn't get another Akita. I think Tank knew what was going to happen and he pointed us to that direction. I thank Tank has saved two dogs.
     The only thing I have left to say that I miss you big boy and we still love you very much.