I remember dreaming that I was running around a horrible, burned landscape. I was trying to find people alive, like I was supposed to. But there were no people at all and, when I came back to my owner, she sent me away angrily.

“Go away, useless mutt,” Betty said in the dream, “Who would want such a stupid dog in their home?”

I dreamed I walked alone in the desert, useless, abandoned and unwanted. I just wanted to find a kind person, to be petted for a minute or for someone to say, “Good girl, Lottie!”

But I was totally alone in the world. They were the worst dreams I ever had.

So, when I woke up on the thirteenth of September, I’d had so many bad dreams that I’d hardly slept at all. I had had a horrible time trying to do my job rescuing people from under the rubble, but I had only found one person.

The next day, I thought I was going back to that sad place which they called ggrrrrround zero, and I dragged my feet as if I were going to the vets. But I needn’t have worried, because instead, Betty decided to take me someplace else. We drove about an hour and then she led me into this funny smelling place.

There were people there who were blue and pink and white and what they were doing was, they were moving about among a bunch of beds, like the ones Mikey and Sarah had at the family home.

But instead of two children, there were dozens and dozens of them. I guessed their momma must have had a big litter. In doggy heaven, I later heard I was one of nine puppies. Well, compared to that place, my mother must have been disappointed.

That was a confusing place for a dog. There was crying and yelling and laughing and singing and pushing. And the smells! The people smelt strong enough, but the floor in that place smelled very funny too. It was a smell I’d get used to over time, but that day, it was stomach turning for me, not because it was terrible, but it was overpoweringly strong to my poor nose.  

Later, in doggie heaven, they told me it was called disinfectant and that they’d added a whole flood more after I’d been there.

I hurried from bed to bed, meeting those children and they patted and stroked me until I couldn’t have been groomed any better. I said hello to so many children that I right forgot about that sad day that had happened the day before.

And that afternoon, guess what? I got to meet up with Charlie. But I could see he’d been sad too. His head was low, and his tail just wasn’t wagging. But Charlie cheered right up when he saw me. He ran up and we pawed each other and nuzzled each other half to death, playfighting while our owners talked as if we were puppies again.

That afternoon, Charlie and I went to another room like the one earlier. And this time, people said a word so many times that I couldn’t help but learn it: “Therapy”.

They led us to this big, nice hall and the people there were grownups. Most of them had these strange dark marks that they wouldn’t let me touch, but I got one good, firm lick in! Funny thing was, that weird lump wasn’t like licking a regular person. Their skin was like the pads on my paws or the bark of a tree.

It was only when I got to Doggie Heaven that they told me,

“Those marks were burns, Lottie. They were firefighters and cops who had been burned in the fires after the terrorist attack. They didn’t want you licking them because you could have infected their wounds.”

Well, I felt kind of bad at making those poor guys infectious, but how was I to have known?

So, I went from person to person, thumping my tail and resting my head and letting them pet me and talk to me. And Charlie did the same, and he was like a different dog from how he had been earlier in the day. I sure was happy to see my friend doing better.

Now, Charlie and I had so much fun doing therapy that they took us to meet other sad folks. Every day, we’d spend hours going from bed to bed and meeting men and women and children. They’d pet us and smile and ask Betty questions about us.

Later, up here, someone said we had reminded them that there was innocence and love and hope still in the world, despite the evil things some folks had done. Now, I don’t know much about that. All I did was smile and wag my tail!

While I was doing this, Betty was approached by a man wearing funny green and black clothes. He gave her a card and I knew they were talking about me because I heard my name several times. I tried to understand them, but there were all sorts of words that, up to that point, I’d never heard before. They said, “Army” and “Afghanistan” and “service” but I didn’t understand much, so I got bored and wandered away.

In doggie heaven, they told me that the man was wearing camouflage, and something called a uniform, which told people he was a soldier.

I probably would have been happy working as a therapy dog forever. But instead, Betty decided that I would help more by doing something called ‘serving the country’.

So, I was signed up by the army, and I began to prepare to go to war.