Wow, that's touching. I think it's great short story material. My advice would be not to try and get it done quickly, but let it be an ongoing project that just gets longer and longer. (And better and better!)

That story has got a ton of potential. You got my vote for hand drawn

you know that might help cause then it really falls into place. I was going to do the story from the dog's perspective a lot. Since the story is about Hachi and his loyalty to his master. Yeah the book actually does talk about him dying and everyone at the station all saddened by his passing. They made a monument to Hachi and placed it where he once stood waiting for the train. I think I might skip the books end cause I am doing it from Hachi's perspective rather than just an overall story.

The other challenge is that there is no dialogue. One of the phrases that the professor kept saying to Hachi was "what a good dog you are.",  "what a fine dog you are", and "Hachi you are the best dog in all of Japan." That and the dog barks in a part making the professor concerned and such. I was thinking of doing it like a real silent movie where when they have dialogue it would show it rather than speak the words..but I dunno if that would make it slowed down too much. I want more action rather than speaking in this animation since the original Japanese live action  of the story had too much words and it just got too much like a drama. I would rather have t like the book had it. more action than words.