When we were driving back from Kansas I kept looking behind us.  Was there really a dog in the back seat?  A big dog?  It was so quiet!  And yes, every time he was there, curled up as much as a 70 pound dog could on a car backseat, eyes open and tail thumping when I looked.  We got home and it was too late to take him to the rescue so we set up a very large crate and put him in for the night.  Even then I think we knew.

And then in the morning Nate and I looked at each other and said yeah, he’s not going anywhere but here.  And his name isn’t Champion, even though that’s what’s on the papers.  What could it be?  He’s oh so handsome, and oh so well behaved.  Oh.  His name is Oso.

It took him a few months to go from skin and bones to 100 pounds.  He’s got a big chowder head and a tongue that doesn’t stop; licking is apparently his most important sense and he’ll try it on anyone he can.  People are yummy.

He accompanies Nate almost everywhere he goes:  breweries, bookstores, art galleries, Home Depot, Veterans Day parades.  People recognize Oso far more than they recognize us.  He’s just the right height to be huggable for children, who will hug the heck out of him whenever they can.

He’s white with a big patch of brown and black over one eye.  Nate says his mother was scared by a St. Bernard.  When we say he’s an Akita some people take a step back, but then they come forward again because how could you not?  He’s oh so kind and oh so sweet.

When we hear barking we know he is teasing the French mastiffs in the yard behind ours.  This gives me heartburn as they are 140 lbs each and not very well socialized except within their pack. As soon as we knock on the window or yell “Oso” he comes trotting back, well satisfied with himself.

When Nate takes him to the breweries he is almost universally admired.  If someone doesn’t make a fuss over him I feel like going to the table and saying “What’s wrong with you?  This is OSO.  He’s beloved!”  At The Tasty Weasel, where he is universally enjoyed, he will cruise tables asking for peanuts.

His life would be complete if only he could get on the bed.  We are of the opinion that two people of reasonable size and one very large dog might be a bit much for the bed frame; to say nothing of the fact that if he was a bed monger (like Gus) there would be no room for the reasonably-sized people.  So instead he sleeps on the kitchen floor (there are rugs and dog beds available), directly below the sink.

He is the very gentle leader of a very assorted pack. Hikari will chew on his tail and undercarriage and he will tolerate it but when he’s tired of it he’ll let her know. And every once in a while Sakura will get him in a play bow and then they play, Little and Large, all about the house.

Oso is the heart of our family. He is the greeter, the goodbye-er, and the quiet, waking presence alongside everything we do in the house. He makes us better people, and somehow even makes our marriage sweeter. O so sweeter.