A loyal dog—a 12-year-old Shih-Tzu—rescued the life of its 83-year-old owner during the March 11 earthquake.

The dog, Babu, insisted on going for a walk and dragged its owner Tami Akanuma outside. The dog stubbornly headed for a nearby hill rather than taking their usual route in the coastal city of Miyako. Akanuma decided to follow her dog and in doing so, she was spared from the tsunami which slammed into the town minutes after she hiked uphill. The torrent flattened the district of Taro-Kawamukai which was 200 meters from the coast, where they lived.

“Babu might have sensed a tsunami was coming,” said Akanuma.

Akanuma was relaxing in her living room when the quake struck off the Tohoku coast. The lights went out and Babu started scampering around the room, whimpering loudly and madly wagging her tail.

“It’s a bit early for a walk,” she thought, but Babu’s insistence got her to go outside anyway.

“We need to evacuate,” Akanuma recalled thinking.

As soon as she opened the door, Babu frantically ran outside and headed toward a nearby hill–the opposite direction they usually go for a walk.

When Akanuma’s pace slackened, Babu would look back, seemingly urging her owner to walk faster. When Akanuma caught up, Babu would bound ahead again, straining at her leash.

This game of hurry-up-and-catch-me continued over and over. When Akanuma finally took a breather, she had climbed the hill where an evacuation center is located about one kilometer from her home.

Turning around, Akanuma could barely believe her eyes: Most of the route she and Babu had walked had been swallowed up by the tsunami and her home had been consumed by the wall of muddy water.

Akanuma believes her pooch could tell something was wrong that day.

As soon as they went outside, Babu ran frantically for the hills, in the opposite direction of where they usually go for walks, and Akanuma had no choice but to follow.

Babu and Akanuma are currently staying with 60 other survival locals at a hall being used as a shelter.

source: yomiuri