Rescuers find dog adrift at sea on roof

A Japan Coast Guard elite rescue unit has picked up a dog that was adrift at sea on a house roof off the nations tsunami-battered northeast coast

A Japan Coast Guard elite rescue unit has picked up a dog that was adrift at sea on a house roof off the nations tsunami-battered northeast coast,an official said Saturday.

On Friday,a helicopter crew spotted the floppy-eared dark brown canine adrift two kilometres from Kesennuma,a port town severely hit in the March 11 disaster,according to the coastguard official.

A member of a highly-trained rescue unit,nicknamed the sea monkeys by the Japanese public,was lowered from the helicopter to catch the dog,but it took several hours for the capture because the dog scampered across other floating wreckage when it saw officers winching down from the chopper.

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The mid-sized dog,whose sex was not released,wore a collar and seemed to have been a house pet,the official said. But it has nothing else to indicate who the owner is. The dog is very friendly and looks fine… eats biscuits and sausages, he said.

It was not known whether the animal had been adrift for the entire three weeks since the disaster struck.