The Making of HERO DOGS

"Mike's fiancee was on the plane."

Those words from my mother still don't seem real.  Just a year earlier, my cousin Mike and I had lunch in Boston, where he announced that he'd proposed to his girlfriend, Heather, and that the wedding would be in the Fall of 2002.  Those plans shattered on September 11, 2001, when Heather's plane -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- was hijacked and crashed into One World Trade Center.  Heather was 30 years old.

Two weeks later, my editor at Little, Brown, Megan Tingley, contacted me. The two of us had been tossing around ideas for a new book, but nothing had clicked yet.  "How would you feel about writing a book about the dogs working at the World Trade Center site?"  she asked.  It was just what I needed -- a way to contribute and bring some meaning to a senseless act.


Visit to the World Trade Center site

The next week, my husband and I took a plane to New York and met with Chief Roy Gross of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) who was coordinating the medical care of the search and rescue dogs working at the World Trade Center site.  Chief Gross had donated the use of an SPCA mobile animal hospital -- one of only three of its kind in the United States -- and had worked with officials to set up a MASH unit just a few blocks away from Ground Zero.  When we arrived in the city, he graciously took us to the site so that we could meet with the men and women treating the animals as well as the police and rescue workers combing "the pile" with their canine partners.

During the first weeks after the WTC attack, dozens of dogs passed through the medical station each day, explained Chief Gross. "We had IV bags hanging in a row, and treated as many as fifteen dogs at a time."
Dr. John Charos, one of the lead veterinarians caring for the animals, said that when the dogs first came off the pile, they were covered in debris and contaminants and their eyes were red and irritated from the dust.  The most common injuries included bloodied paws from metal and glass cuts, burns from the smouldering rubble, breathing difficulties from the dust-laden air and dehydration from the sweltering heat.


Canines with a cause

In the months that followed, I had the privilege of meeting and learning about many more caring and courageous men, women and their canines who had become partners in crisis on September 11.  One such person was Michael Hingson, a sales manager who has been blind since birth and who worked on the 78th floor of One World Trade Center.  Hingson's guide dog, Roselle, led him to safety that fateful day.   Now Hingson works for Guide Dogs for the Blind -- the organization that trained Roselle -- as their National Public Affairs Representative, sharing his story and demonstrating the strength of the human-animal bond.   Other heroes included:  Cindy Ehlers and her therapy dog, Tikva, who brought hope to those who lost family members and comfort to police officers, firefighters and rescue workers faced with the overwhelming task of searching for survivors and, eventually, human remains; and people like Ed Apple and his canine partner, Abby, of the Tennessee Task Force One FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team, who worked long hours scouring the wreckage of the Pentagon site.

Along with these and other September 11 stories of canine/handler courage, I worked to convey the tremendous amount of training that takes place behind the scenes as well as the traits trainers look for in puppies "with potential."    To balance the book, I included a section featuring everyday hero dogs, such as those who provide companionship, sniff for bombs and rescue people from avalanches.  One 15-year-old golden retriever named Bullet, saved the life of a newborn when he instinctively noticed a change in the baby's breathing pattern.

It's real stories like these that demonstrate the many miracles that can happen when hearts, hands and paws join together!