Dog rescued after three weeks at sea following Japan tsunami

The dog was found floating on the roof of a house that had washed away at sea. The dog, which was found on flotsam floating out at sea not far from the coast of Kesennuma, northern Japan, looked emaciated but alive as scrambled on to the roof.Today was the first day of an intensive operation to search and recover the still 18,000 people still missing and now possibly presumed dead three weeks after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a killer tsunami. A total of 27,500 were either killed or are still missing.

On April 1st, U.S forces, Japan's Self Defense force, Japanese police and coast guards launched a three day operation involving 120 aircraft and 65 vessels over three northern Japanese prefectures. Japanese broadcaster NTV said Japan Coast Guards had been hoping the dog would lead them to the pet's owner.

But seemingly scared by the helicopter's propellers it hid under the roof of the house forcing the Japanese coast guard to descended on the roof to try to lure the dog out to safety . After several attempts the coast guards also sought to open a hole in to the roof to pull the dog out.

The dog was eventually rescued several hours later by a nearby coast guard boat that took over the rescue operations when the helicopter ran out of fuel, according to NTV.