Tampa Dog That Scoured 9/11 Ruins Dies

During her nine-year career as a search and rescue dog, Marley crawled through the ruins of the World Trade Center Towers and sniffed around the destruction wrought by eight hurricanes.

No matter how apocalyptic the scene looked, the raven-haired Labrador approached each mission with a nose that never quit and a singular focus: Find survivors, said Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Mark Bogush, her owner and trainer.

In the years they worked as a team, Marley never left Bogush's side. On Wednesday, when her stomach became twisted and distended from a condition known as canine bloat, Bogush never left hers.

As the 12-year-old Marley lay on a table at an animal hospital, veterinarians told her 46-year-old owner emergency surgery would give her a 50-50 chance of living. Even with post-operative long-term care, there was a 75 percent chance the bloat would return.

"So I knew what the answer was," Bogush said. "I got 12 excellent years from Marley. The best thing for her was to go to that little puppy palace in the sky."

As a trainer of search and rescue dogs, Bogush said he spent years steeling himself for the possibility Marley would suffer a fatal injury in a disaster area. But the decision to euthanize Marley was almost too painful to bear.

Painkillers had numbed her, but Bogush stroked her fur for extra comfort as the end came.

"It tore your heart out," he said. "I'm sure I was blabbering at the time. It was hard to see her through the tears."

Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said Marley was considered "just like one of the firefighters. She loved us and appreciated us as much as we loved her."

Marley retired a few years ago and was just a happy-go-lucky dog "with a big fluffy pillow in the house," Bogush said. She had hip problems and arthritis. Marley also had hearing loss.

Bogush recalled the first time he saw her, when she was a 6-month-old puppy.

"She was gorgeous. Pitch black. Shiny. Just a beautiful, beautiful animal."

A friend asked Bogush at a party if he wanted a dog because the young black Lab was "tearing up" his friend's house. The friend had a newborn baby and didn't have the time or patience to train Marley.

When Bogush saw Marley practically dragging his friend's wife while she tried to walk her, the fire rescue captain knew he had found a quality needed in all search and rescue dog high energy.

Bogush had just joined Tampa Fire Rescue's first urban search and rescue team. Another dog, Jessie, was being trained by Lt. Roger Picard. Bogush had no idea if Marley would develop the skills to join Jessie. He eased her into the training by first taking a favorite toy and tossing it into thick brush.

"If she doesn't quit, that's a good search dog," Bogush said. "She searched and searched until she found that goofy little toy. She was a lucky find."

The next step was to have another person hold the toy and go hide. Soon, Marley treated search and rescue like a game of hide-and-seek. Searching amidst the rubble of the World Trade Center, Marley was motivated by the idea that if she found trapped people, they would "pop up and play with her," Bogush said.

Marley did not find a single survivor during her career. But her tenacity and great nose saved other firefighters precious time and energy, Bogush said. Within minutes, Marley would know if people were trapped. It's a mission that would take fire crews hours.

Bogush has decided not to train another search and rescue dog.

"It's a younger man's game," he said. "It's a lot of work, a lot of responsibility."

Tampa Fire Rescue has five search and rescue dogs working as first responders and another five working on certification.

Marley will always be remembered as a pioneer, a people-friendly dog who licked children's faces in pediatric care units and, even in retirement, kept sniffing for snacks or treats.

"As soon as you open up a bag of chips, she would smell it," Bogush said. "The nose was her biggest quirk. That nose never stopped working."