A dog rescued after three weeks on a roof after the tsunami in Japan has had a joyful reunion with her owner who recognised her pet from TV footage.
The ‘tsunami dog’ captured the public’s imagination when she was filmed on the rooftop of a submerged house three weeks after the tsunami hit Japan. On Youtube, the footage was watched by millions.
However, although the dog was rescued but no one knew the fate of her owner.
Now a woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, has come forward saying she recognises the ‘tsunami dog’ as her pet, named Ban, and has turned up at the animal rescues centre to claim her.
‘Tsunami dog’ Ban is reunited with owner
“We’ll never let go of her,” the owner told a centre official.
“I saw the rescue on the news, and knew it was her. I knew her right away, from her face.”
According to local media, the dog jumped up and wagged her tail on seeing her owner.
The dog was rescued by a Japan Coast Guard crew after it was found stranded on a drifting roof some 1.8km off Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, on Japan’s tsunami-battered north-east coast.
The roof apparently became detached and washed out to sea during the tsunami, which hit Japan on March 11.
Toshiro Suzuki, head of the animal shelter which took in the rescued dog, told Kyodo news agency: “I’m happy for the reunion, after they were separated by the disaster.”
The tsunami dog story has received a huge amount of coverage after a disaster that did not yield many happy stories.
The original ‘tsunami dog’ rescue