By TATSUYA SATO/ Staff Writer
April 21, 2022 at 08:00 JST
An Akita Inu dog named Reeny waits for her owner to return in Makariv, an administrative region of Kyiv province, Ukraine. (From Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko’s social media account)
Japan’s legendary “Hachiko” now has a rival in an administrative region of Kyiv province in Ukraine.
In this case, an Akita Inu dog waited at the entrance of her home for a month for her owner, who had been raped and murdered by a Chechnyan soldier fighting alongside invading Russian forces.
The pitiful sight earned the faithful canine the nickname of “Hachiko of Makariv.”
The story about the hound called Reeny was shared on social media by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the internal affairs minister of Ukraine.
According to Gerashchenko’s account, Reeny’s owner, a widow, lived in Makariv. Her husband died of illness three years ago.
At the start of the Feb. 24 invasion, the woman elected to stay at home. But as the fighting intensified, she began to make plans to flee the city with a friend.
While she was waiting for her friend to come to her home, a soldier from Chechnya in southern Russia broke into the house, raped her repeatedly over the course of several days and then stabbed her to death in mid-March.
Although some residents still remained in Makariv, they feared to venture out and try to rescue the woman as armed Russian troops were roaming the battered area.
In his post, Gerashchenko mourned the tragic circumstances of the woman’s death, noting that there is no way of knowing how many days she endured brutality.
When volunteers tried to take the dog to an animal protection center, the bereaved Reeny refused to abandon her post.
The story did have a happy ending, however.
In his April 14 tweet, Gerashchenko posted the following:
“Good news! Akita Reeny from Makariv has found a new home and her people (to care for her). Her owner’s name is Nadezhda. The family knows how to take care of this breed, as they already have an Akita boy and they became friends with Reeny.”
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
