The Boy and the Dog, translated from Japanese, is a straightforward, sentimental story about the loyalty of a dog, the connection that dogs have with humans, and the support dogs provide to people. The dog is the character who unites the novel’s six different stories. The dog, who wears a tag with the name Tamon, has strayed from home after a tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear meltdown. The Japanese characters who find Tamon recognize that his name derives from a guardian deity. Tamon, the dog, is a guardian angel in various ways for the people who find him in each story segment.
In the first tale, Kazumasa, a man who drives thieves away from their heists, finds Tamon outside a store. Tamon brings great joy to his failing mother and warns about the man’s risky endeavors. However, when he does not heed the warnings, one of the thieves ends up with Tamon in the following story. As any reader can surmise from the chapter titles, the dog presents himself next to a young couple, then a prostitute, an old man, and finally, a young boy for a satisfying end of the novel.
Most characters who find and adopt Tamon bring him to a vet. The vets recognize that the dog’s microchip originated in Iwate, an area of Japan that had been greatly affected by the tragedies. The location indicates that Tamon has traveled far from his owner; therefore, he was not a stray, but the owner doesn’t respond to notices of Tamon’s whereabouts. Thus, the reader assumes that the dog’s owner has perished in one of the tragedies that have taken place. The dog, however, brings pleasure and comfort to each of his found owners in different ways. The common thread is having the dog for support, friendship, and connection when the circumstances of their lives seem desperate.
