Old lady’s pet dog saved her life.

Source:Yomiuri Online

Akanuma lives with her pet dog who 

saved her life in an evacuation area. 

Taken by Tetsuya Kikumasa.

There is a lady who was saved by her pet dog in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, which was damaged by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that happened on 11th of March.

Her pet dog seemed upset then jerked the lady to a higher place which led to an evacuation area for 30 minutes before the tsunami attacked. 

Her name is Tami Akanuma. She lived at about 200 meters away from the coast. She was hit by the earthquake when she was relaxing in the living room with her dog, Babu, a female Shih-tzu. When the fluorescent light turned off, Babu bustled running around and wagging her tail strongly with her nose whimpering.

The community wireless system went on a big tsunami alarm while AKanuma was attaching a leash to her dog, though, she thought it was not yet time to go walking for her dog.

When Akanuma opened the front door, Babu flew out and headed for a hill which is an opposite direction of their usual walking way.

When Akanuma slowed down, Babu turned around and gestured as if she was urging her to walk faster. When Akanuma caught up with Babu, she vigorously moved forward. As they repeated that, they climbed up to a steep slope without stopping until reaching the evacuation area which is 1 km away from their house.

When she looked back, the way she had been walking through was swallowed by the tsunami and her house was also washed away. She wondered that Babu might have felt the tsunami would come, in light of Babu's unusual behavior that Babu usually hated walking.

Babu is living with Akanuma and 60 other residents in a neighboring public hall. On 23rd, when Babu tuned 12 years old, Babu got her favorite pink cloth washed and looked happy.