People compete for a chance to adopt one stray dog

The stray dog that captured the hearts of Japanese people everywhere with its desperate struggle to escape from a concrete embankment has finally found a home:

TOKUSHIMA — A home has been found for a dog that gained nationwide attention after becoming trapped on a steep slope in Tokushima in November last year.

The dog’s new owner was chosen on Sunday in an event held at the Tokushima Prefectural Animal Welfare Center, where 66-year-old Kazuko Umaki, a housewife from the town of Tsurugi, drew the winning lot.

“I want to be able to walk her as soon as possible,” Umaki said after winning the right to become the dog’s owner. While on her way home, she talked with her granddaughter, a third-year elementary school student, and decided to call the canine “Rinrin.”

The dog, believed to be about 8 months old, has gained 1.6 kilograms in the two months it has been looked after following its capture.

After the dog was captured, 109 people from across Japan phoned in saying they wanted to keep it. However, prospective owners were required to come to the animal welfare center in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture, for the draw, and on Sunday just 11 people including two people from outside the prefecture turned up. When the draw was held, one elementary school student who missed out burst into tears.

Another dog believed to be Rinrin’s sister, who was captured on the same slope four days before Rinrin was found, is still being held at the center, but no owner has yet been found. Center officials plan to begin searching for an owner in the near future.

Rinrin’s sister? Who would want that dog? It wasn’t even on TV!