The dog waiting for its owner in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture
On a snow-covered road in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, a dog sits continually waiting for its owner. Despite growing thin and drawn as it waits in the winter cold, the animal has shown no signs of moving for more than a week.
Japanese netizens have been touched by the story, calling the dog a ‘modern-day Hachiko‘. This article about the dog has been re-tweeted over 8,000 times, gathered over 14,000 Facebook ‘likes’ and continues to rouse the emotions of people all over Japan.
From Chunichi Shimbun:
A Dog That Sits Waiting For Its Master Has Been Waiting For Over A Week, Iida City.
On Taihei Road in Uwaiida, Iida City, a dog continues to wait for its master for over a week.
It is a male dog with a body that is around 60cm long, and its fur is brown. He doesn’t wear a collar and looks like he might be a hunting dog. On December 4, when Harada Toshio (70) and his wife Miyoko (70) of Kanaeshimoyama, also in Iida City, passed along a road that had an elevation of around 1000 m in their car, they found a dog sitting still at the side of the road on some vacant land.
Although battered by the rain and snow, the dog showed no signs of moving, but on December 10, when traffic was stopped on the road due to the heavy snow that fluttered down, the dog moved toward the bottom of the mountain. On the afternoon of December 11, he sat before the gate closing off the mountain pass. The dog was painfully thin from living outside, but he never took his eyes off the road.
Mr. and Mrs. Harada said, ‘We wondered if he had strayed from his owner when they were out hunting. Perhaps he has been abandoned, because no matter how long the dog waits his owner never comes. The poor thing must be starving’.
Netizens have likened the dog to the loyal dog Hachiko, whose statue still remains outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo.
Comments from Twitter:
ピースピット 末満健一:
A modern-day Hachiko. May he find his owner soon.
髙橋 哲:
Ah, this little dog! Poor thing.
Teppei Himeshima:
I wonder what he’s thinking as he sits there waiting. Whether his thoughts will become reality. Beneath that cold sky. If he’s just left there, he’ll probably die. I guess there is no way of saving him.
せいじ ☆:
Makes me feel kind of lonely(>_<)
ゐ:
Ah, the loyalty of dogs…(cry)
koumehahat:
Was he just left there? I started crying because it reminded me of when I had a little doggy.
のみ:
Come on, I’m begging, someone take him.
吉岡 勇:
Owner, please show up. Please. He is a fine dog.
かすが:
The people from the neighbourhood and the family must have noticed…say something! How can the owner, or the family of this little boy, just go on with life? Could there be another creature on this earth who you are so important to?
kaushika:
I can’t bear to see him….
kishudog:
Is this another dog that has been abandoned?(ﾉ_･｡)…
りくろう:
Ah, this is hard…He doesn’t have a collar…he must have been abandoned?
中矢伸一事務所:
You hear that sometimes when a hunter feels that his hunting days are over, he leaves his hunting dog in the mountains, or shoots them dead. They only see them as a tool of the trade. It seems that the reason is that if they keep them as a pet they cost money. I wonder if this dog was a hunting dog?
jinsak:
I pray this comes to a good end.
海外暮らし:
Too heartrending. I hope he can see his owner soon.
sarah:
Owner, please come to pick him up soon～
ベラ:
It must be so cold…The image of him waiting for his owner is so sweet it makes me want to cry…
GT MANTIS:
Iida is cold — I hope he can find his owner soon. He’s so thin, the poor thing.
和歌ちゃん:
May he be reunited with his owner soon!
あくび猫 脱原発に一票:
I wonder what’s happened to him since, I’m worried because it’s cold.
