I was brought up to believe that there is no such thing as failure as long as I'm trying my best. So I've had a 'blood guts and glory' approach through my whole life.
I had a big Akita Yoshi who was fabulous. I loved him. We lost him when he was 12 and I've never been able to replace him. Normally most people lose a pet and get another and keep going on. But it just felt wrong to me it felt disloyal.