Dogs are very loyal animals, but this dog had a heartbreaking story!
This is Hachiko. He is well-known as one of the most loyal dogs in history.
Hachiko was born on November 10, 1923, and met his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, in 1924. Hachiko lived with his owner and as time passed, Hachiko began to have a routine of leaving the house and meeting his owner at the nearby Shibuya Station at the end of each day.
This routine continued until May 21, 1925, when Ueno passed away at work from cerebral hemorrhage. Hachiko, being a dog, never knew of his passing and since that day, he had waited at Shibuya Station for his owner, dead, who will never return again.
Nonetheless, Hachiko remained a loyal dog. Every day, he would return to the station at the exact time the train arrives, and he did this for the next nine years until Hachiko ultimately died. It was concluded that Hachiko died from both terminal cancer and a filaria infection. They even found four yakitori sticks in his stomach, though they didn’t cause any damage nor killed him.
Finally, in 2015, both Hachiko and Ueno were reunited when a sculpture was created showing Hachiko happily greeting his owner, as he had always done before Ueno died.
This story never fails to get me.
Animal loyalty truly is admirable and every time I look back on this story, sometimes, I pity the fact that animals can never really understand humans. Hachiko never knew about Ueno’s death, yet he was willing to always try and see if his owner will return, even though it was futile.
~Phillip Mercado
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