ARAHAMA, Japan — When the tsunami warnings sounded after the massive earthquake that struck Japan on Friday, Masaki Kikuchi sprinted upstairs to grab his sleeping 12-year-old daughter before racing away to escape the rushing waters.
In the backyard tied to a small shed, Kikuchi left behind two dogs: Towa, a two-year-old Sheltie and Melody, a one-year-old Golden Retriever. Kikuchi assumed the giant tsunami that flattened his neighbors’ homes and whisked away their cars probably killed Towa and Melody too.
But Towa and Melody had other ideas. They somehow broke free from the ropes tying them to the shed and ran up outdoor stairs to the second floor of Kikuchi’s house. And then they waited and waited. “I don’t know how they survived,” said Kikuchi.
Two days after the earthquake, Kikuchi ventured out from the evacuation center where his family had reunited unharmed. He walked in rubber boots on the debris-covered roads still covered in floodwater with his feet sinking in the thick mud below.
When he finally got to the house, sidestepping a car that had shifted to block the entrance to the driveway, he could hear the barking.
“I was happy to see them because I had felt badly about leaving them behind,” said Kikuchi. He gave them water, food and brought them inside after cleaning them up.
Kikuchi knew that his elder daughter would want to see Towa and Melody, so on Monday the two of them set out to make the same journey across roads covered in thick mud. “This is where I would walk them everyday,” she said.
As soon as Kayo Kikuchi, 20, entered the driveway, Towa jumped up and started scratching at the door. She opened the door and the Sheltie with fur still dotted with mud jumped up on her leg. Melody, who is more reserved, barked excitedly from inside.
Kikuchi and his daughter said they will come back every day to look after the dogs, but they are not going to bring the dogs to the shelter.
“There are lots of people dead and it’s too much to ask to bring the dogs,” said Masaki Kikuchi. “It would be inconsiderate to other people’s sadness.”
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