Make shift Kennel made from chairs and possessions Martin Dean and his wife Akiko have turned down offers to be evacuated to the UK with their three-month daughter Juno. He won't leave pet poodle Chibi behind - and Japanese Akiko, refuses to be separated from her parents. The family's home is just 28 miles from the quake-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant - although they are now at an evacuation centre.
The dog is not allowed in so remains in the car. Martin who is an English teacher originally from the UK joins Chibi at night despite freezing temperatures. He insisted yesterday as his family and in-laws battle grim conditions at the evacuation centre just 100 miles from the plant: "We have been tested for radiation and are fine.
"But we have two cars full of fuel ready to leave straight away if the situation at Fukushima gets any worse."
This isn't the only family living in a shelter in Japan with their pets in the car outside because they are not allowed inside. With the country still in shambles and roads first starting to be cleared and opened tent shelters that allow families to stay with their pets have not yet been erected. Plans are being created to put up these tent villages where families can live with their animals like after the last big Earthquake in Japan.
Until these tents can be put up and donations can be gathered people will continue to keep their pets in their car while they are in the evacuation shelters during the day and sleep in the car with their dogs and cats at night. Even the shelters that allow the animals inside are getting complaints about the dogs making noise or fighting because they are bored and can't be outside playing because of the debris. Instead they are in makeshift kennels not much bigger then their bodies for hours and hours of the day so that families can stay together since that is all they have left.