However Parker is able to convince her to let the dog stay temporarily. So Parker takes the dog home, despite he and his wife Cate long having dismissed the idea of having a dog. Parker does whatever he can to find out who the dog belongs to, and although his many acquaintances around the train station do their small part in helping Parker, no one is willing to take the dog, even temporarily. He also learns from Ken, a Japanese professor friend, that the dog is a Japanese breed called an Akita, and that the Japanese character on the dog's collar tag is the number eight - 'hachi'. It is on one of those routine days going home that he finds at the Bedridge Station a puppy, who he eventually will learn was being shipped somewhere unknown, with the shipping tag lost. Several years earlier, Parker Wilson, who lives in Bedridge in suburban New York City, is a college music/performing arts professor, he who makes the train commute to/from the city every working day. The story is told in flashbacks as class assignment 'my hero' by Michael's teen son Robbie, who also gets an Akita puppy.Įleven year old Robbie is giving an oral class report on the topic of 'My Hero', his chosen subject, Hachi, who on the surface is an unusual choice. Hachi refuses to accept this, being moved to Michael's home as Cate moves out, waiting for a master who can never come home again, by now collectively adopted by sympathizing town-folk. Hachi makes a habit of waiting for his equally doting master at the station every evening, but after a cardiac crisis, Parker dies. Parker's Japanese college friend Ken inspires naming the pup Hachi(ko), and is pleasantly surprised when Parker successfully tackles the challenge to get it to fetch, which Akitas don't usually do. His bossy, jealous wife Cate initially makes Parker swear it won't stay, but by the time its' clear nobody will claim him and an adoption candidate is found, she agrees to keep the dog, who won over their daughter Andy and her fiance Michael at first sight. A college professor bonds with an abandoned dog he takes into his home.Ĭommuting by train, music professor Parker Wilson finds an Akita puppy, whose cage broke unnoticed during shipping, leaving his destination unknown, and since the station can't care for it and the dog catcher warns even such cute ones may not be adopted in the two weeks allowed, he kindly takes it home.

Is hachi a dogs tale good ?