Photo/Illutration Ikura collects a plastic bottle washed up on Irino beach in Kuroshio, Kochi Prefecture, on July 29, 2019. (Masatoshi Kasahara)

KUROSHIO, Kochi Prefecture--Blind from cataracts and hobbling on increasingly feeble legs, a Boston terrier here continued her routine of collecting and discarding plastic bottles washed up on shore.

But eventually her body gave out.

After removing an estimated 4,000 bottles from Irino beach over a decade and proving an inspiration to both humans and animals, Ikura died of old age on the morning of June 14. She was 13.

“I miss her so much,” Nobuyuki Niiya, 63, said of his departed pet dog.

Irino beach is a famed surfing spot in Kuroshio on the main island of Shikoku. Niiya owns a surfing shop in the town.

The beach also became known for the cleaning tactics of Ikura at a time when global awareness was spreading about plastic waste fouling the planet’s oceans.

Niiya took Ikura on daily morning and evening strolls along an approximately 1-kilometer route on the beach. One by one, she would pick up plastic bottles in her mouth and take them to a trash collection site by the shore.

Surfers and children took up the habit of picking up trash on the beach after seeing Ikura retrieve at least one bottle on each walk.

She earned the moniker “plastic bottle dog” and was featured many times in newspaper and TV reports.

Ikura developed cataracts about a year ago and lost her eyesight, but she used her sense of smell to continue collecting the trash.

However, her legs began to totter. And by around May, Ikura could no longer walk.

“I wished she could have lived a little longer,” Niiya said. “But Ikura did leave behind a successor to her mission of collecting plastic bottles.”

In February, Niiya received 1-year-old Uni, another female Boston terrier, from an acquaintance in Geisei village, also in Kochi Prefecture.

During joint walks on the sandy beach, Uni saw Ikura drain her last ounce of strength to collect plastic bottles. The younger terrier then began imitating Ikura.

Uni now crunches plastic bottles in her mouth as she takes them to the trash collection site. She has retrieved at least 50 bottles so far.

“I have called out ‘Ikura’ by mistake many times at the sight of Uni rushing with a plastic bottle in her mouth,” Niiya said.

Ikura’s cremated remains have been placed in an upstairs room at Niiya’s shop, which commands a window view of the Pacific Ocean and Irino beach, both of which Ikura adored.

The white beach is now dotted with the footprints of Uni, who has taken over as the “plastic bottle dog.”

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