Two Dogs Defy the Wave in Japan

In the backyard tied to a small shed, Mr. Kikuchi left behind two dogs: Towa, a two-year-old Sheltie and Melody, a one-year-old Golden Retriever. Mr. Kikuchi assumed the giant tsunami that flattened his neighbors' homes and whisked away their cars probably killed Towa and Melody too.

Koya Kikuchi, the 20-year-old daughter of Mr. Kikuchi, was riding the bus home from her job at a local restaurant. When the earthquake struck, a power line fell in front of the bus and passengers started filing out.

She rushed to her cousin's house, which was nearby. She asked her cousin to drive her back home because she wanted to go save the dogs that she had begged her father to get. Within a half-mile of her home, police stopped the car. They told Ms. Kikuchi that a tsunami was coming and she could not go any farther.

"I told my cousin that I was going to walk. She told me that I would die if I went," said Ms. Kikuchi. "I was crushed. I thought they were dead."

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 Mr. Kikuchi's house. And then they waited and waited. "I don't know how they survived," said Mr. Kikuchi.

Two days after the earthquake, Mr. 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 Mr. Kikuchi. He gave them water, food and brought them inside after cleaning them up.