NICA: AN INSEPARABLE LOVE

Richard Gere with the dog Hachiko, in the homonym film

Do you remember the true story of Hachiko, the Japanese Akita dog, told in the film starring the American actor Richard Gere? Hachiko was found in a box on the platform of the Shibuya railway station, district of Tokyo in Japan, by the university professor Hidesaburo Ueno, who decided to keep the dog with him and take care of him. Every day for about a year Hachiko accompanied his master to the station and then returned in the evening to wait to see him get off the train. One day, however, Professor Ueno had a stroke at the university and died, never returning to that station.

The statue of Hachiko in Shibuya station

Hachiko continued to go to the station every evening for about 10 years, despite having been re-entrusted to other masters. He died in 1935, at the age of 11. Today in Shibuya station there is a bronze statue in his honour, positioned exactly where the dog was waiting for his master.

A similar story occurs in Pedara, in the province of Catania, in the clinic "Centro Cuore" Morgagni, where a dog called "Nichitta" (Sicilian term that stands for "little one"), still waits for her elderly master to leave the nursing home, despite the fact that he died fifteen years ago due to a severe heart disease. Nichitta is looked after by the staff of the Centro Cuore, "in particular - they tell us - Mrs. Francesca Marino", employee of the health clinic.

Nichitta at the entrance to the clinic

Nichitta moved us when, with her slow and tired steps, she came to meet us with languid eyes, as if she wanted to ask us for news of her master who has not seen anymore and who still, in vain, waits.

The example of this melancholy dog, now in old age, we should keep it in our daily lives, and we would certainly live better with others.

                                                  Salvatore Cifalinò