The story is told from the point of view of a dog named Happie, who is adopted by a working-class Japanese family as a puppy and lives with them for several years. The dog enjoys living with them and especially appreciates the daily walks Daddy, the name he gives to the man of the family, takes him on. However, one day years later, the man's wife requests a divorce. Now homeless, jobless and with little money, an upbeat Daddy decides to take Happie on a road trip to southern Japan. Along the way, the pair stop at a convenient store, where Daddy spots a dirty-looking young boy attempting to steal bread. He buys it for him instead, and the boy invites himself into Daddy's car. Daddy agrees to take him wherever he wants to go, but the boy is mostly silent. They sleep in the car, and the next morning Daddy discovers that the boy is gone and has taken his wallet. Not long after, Happie experiences extreme pain while urinating and Daddy rushes him to a veterinarian, where he learns that Happie has kidney stones. They operate, and Daddy is forced to pawn almost everything he owns to pay the bill, leaving him almost penniless. They continue on, eventually running out of gas near a campground. They live there for a while, living off the food they can scrounge and catch and sleeping in the car, until one day Daddy dies in his car of a preexisting heart condition. Happie continues to live there for many months until one day he dies too. The police discover their bodies about three months later. |