Amidst the Death in Japan, A Story of How Two Dogs Lived

Amid all the stories of death and destruction in japan, there is one of survival and life that touches everyone that may just become a symbol of hope.

Masaki Kikuchi is a good father. On Friday, when the tsunami sirens blared in his neighborhood, he ran up the steps of his home in Japan's Miyagi province to grab his 12-year-old daughter. He quickly whisked her away, just in time to escape the ferocious wave. Masaki Kikuchi is a good father.

But in saving his daughter, he also made the decision not to rescue the two dogs tied to a shed in his backyard: Towa, a two-year-old Sheltie and Melody, a one-year-old Golden Retriever. In the aftermath of the tsunami -- and in the aftermath of his decision -- he assumed they had died.

Far from it.

"Towa and Melody had other ideas," the Wall Street Journal says in a gripping story. "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."

Good thing. Two days after the tsunami hit, Kikuchi returned to his home to survey the damage. That's when he heard the barking.

"I don't know how they survived," Kikuchi told the WSJ. "I was happy to see them because I had felt badly about leaving them behind."

Kikuchi's other daughter, Koya, 20, was just as elated. "When my father told me they were alive, I was so excited," she told the WSJ.

The dogs are now keeping guard over the home -- which although battered survived the wave -- as the Kikuchi family sleeps at a nearby shelter. Amidst the chaos, they are constants.

"It's been so stressful," Koya said. "It's so good to see them."

It's good to read about them, too.