A dog rescued from the sea atop the floating debris of a house has been re-united with her owner, three weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
Images on Japan's NHK TV showed the medium-sized brown dog, named "Ban," wagging her tail in the arms of her owner Monday at an animal shelter in the quake-battered region of Miyagi.
Ban was plucked off the wreckage of a house drifting almost two kilometers off the shore last week by a Japanese helicopter rescue crew.
The dog's owner, whose name was not made public, saw the rescue on television and rushed to claim her pet.
Thousands of people are still missing three weeks after the disaster, which left more than 12,000 dead and orphaned dozens of pets.