09/12/2026
We remember.
We also remember the dogs and handlers that searched and searched.
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In the days after the September 11 attacks, more than 300 search-and-rescue dog teams were brought to Ground Zero, where they worked alongside first responders in the ruins of the World Trade Center. They picked their way across the smoking, unstable pile searching for the living and, as the days wore on, the lost -- German Shepherds and Labradors, Golden Retrievers and Border Collies, each with a handler at its side. They had been trained to find the living, but there were almost none left to find -- and in the exhausted, grief-stricken hours between the recoveries, they became something else entirely: a source of comfort for rescue workers facing a scene of relentless horror.
The smallest of them all weighed just 18 pounds. Ricky, a Rat Terrier who stood only 17 inches tall, was handled by Janet Linker, a Seattle firefighter. His size was his gift: Ricky slipped into buckled subway tunnels, collapsed stairwells, and tight pockets in the rubble that no larger dog could reach -- and, working the night shift, the smallest search dog in the country helped locate victims buried where the others could not follow.
The search pushed dog and handler into spaces that kept shrinking around them. "There were a few situations where we had to climb underneath metal beams, and the space just kept getting smaller and smaller," Linker recalled.
Ricky worked in tandem with a Golden Retriever named Thunder: when Ricky caught the scent of a victim, he would freeze -- standing dead still, fixing his handler with an intent stare, every hair along his body raised -- and Thunder would settle down beside the spot to confirm it, so rescuers knew exactly where to dig. The two had been trained to give a different signal for a survivor, a bark meant to bring help running. In ten days on the pile, they never once got to make it.
Today we honor these dogs and the handlers who stood beside them -- a reminder of the many forms courage can take, and of the enduring bond between people and the animals who work at their side. Twenty-five years on, they are remembered too -- among the thousands who answered the call, searching for anyone they could bring home.
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To give children and teens -- who were all born after 9/11 -- a better appreciation of this day and its historical significance, you can find many reading recommendations in our blog post "We Remember" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=34372
For tweens and teens, we recommend "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" for ages 9 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/nine-ten), "Towers Falling" for ages 9 to 13 (https://www.amightygirl.com/towers-falling), "All We Have Left" for ages 13 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/all-we-have-left), and "Hope and Other Punchlines" for ages 14 and up (https://www.amightygirl.com/hope-and-other-punchlines)
In addition to the fictional stories featured in our blog post, we also recommend these two excellent non-fiction books on the history of 9/11: "What Were the Twin Towers?" for ages 8 to 12 (https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780448487854) and the graphic novel "In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers" for ages 13 and up (https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780063360983)
And for children's books that celebrate the special bond between Mighty Girls and their canine companions, visit our blog post, "50 Books About Mighty Girls and Their Dogs," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=18554
