Hero Dogs of 9/11: Abby
Ten years after that fateful day, a rescue dog named Abby is enjoying her retirement
At first glance, Abby the black Lab doesn’t look her age. There are very few gray hairs on her muzzle, and she’s as alert and intelligent as she ever was. Watch her on her daily walks with Debra Tosch, though, and you can see the decline. The back legs are starting to go, and she just can’t move the way she used to. At 14, Abby is an elderly dog in the twilight of her life.
But what a life she’s had!
Abby’s a retired search-and-rescue dog, and she and Debra, who was her handler, worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. They also worked California’s deadly La Conchita mudslide in 2005. Just two days before she retired, on her 11th birthday, Abby searched for survivors at the scene of a train wreck in California. And she’s one of the few dogs still living who hunted through the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center desperately seeking signs of life after the September 11 attacks 10 years ago.
Debra, executive director of the Search Dog foundation, which rescues puppies and trains them for search and rescue, was a handler attached to the Los Angeles City Task Force the day the Twin Towers fell. She and Abby were attending a FEMA conference in Washington State when she got the call. Since planes were grounded, she and the other California-based handlers rented two vans and drove cross country to New York. By September 20, she and Abby reported for duty at Ground Zero.
“We spent 10 days working on the pile,” says Debra. Abby’s twin mission: to search for survivors and to verify that the area searched was clear, so rescuers could check it off and move on.
“We worked 12-hour shifts.” Recalls Debra. “Of course the dog handlers worked longer days than that because we had to get up early to feed and care for our dogs and tend to the them at the end of the day. I’d just stumble back to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, where we were staying, take a shower and give Abby one too.” Then it was about four hours sleep and another day searching the ruins.
The worst part for Debra: “Being constantly aware of the pain of the people who had lost so many loved ones, especially the firefighters who had lost their brothers, and who were there searching beside us.”
After their 10 days—a typical FEMA deployment; any longer leads to burnout of both handler and dog—Debra and Abby flew back to California and to their routine of half-day training sessions twice a week and sudden calls to the scene of the latest horror. Their first assignment after 9/11: the 2002 Winter Olympics, in Salt Lake City, where they were on call—just in case.
Says Debra, “Abby’s not your typical tail-wagging black Lab. She’s independent and very focused.” That’s why, once in a while, just for a treat, Debra takes Abby to a training session, turns her loose in an empty house where a volunteer is hiding, and, once more, gives her the order to search.
