Losing any dog is heartbreaking, painful and inevitable but losing an Akita is truly losing your best friend.  You'll never again have such devotion or loyalty unless you get another Akita.  Each of the dogs in this gallery have gone on to wait wherever it is that dogs go, but their loyalty is so profound that we know, without doubt, they will be there when we arrive.  

"I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time? "
                            Sir Walter Scott