Top Dog Quotes

“Since there was a lot of debris on the road – a thick layer of dusty dirt, pebbles, bits of dry vegetation – the techs couldn’t see any sign of an IED. They decided to use propelled water from special bottles to clear the debris and see if there was anything obvious underneath.
Almost as soon as the water hit the ground, there was a huge blast. Willingham could feel it rumble inside his chest.
The explosion left a crater in the middle of the road, twelve feet across by five feet deep.
If Willingham had let Lucca sit at what proved to be a highly unstable IED, it could have been over for her, maybe for him, too. If she had been a typical leashed bomb dog, or if Lucca weren’t so good at her job, that could have been the end of the road for at least the two of them.”
― Maria Goodavage, Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca

“It was as if Lucca was a beautiful kite and Willingham was flying her with an invisible string. Roche, the Ninety-fourth Engineer Detachment Commander, who oversaw about twenty-six dog handlers from the army, air force, and marines, had never seen a dog and handler so perfectly synchronized.”
― Maria Goodavage, Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca