He there side Dorables.

A quick note that this episode features descriptions of war,

which does include some violence and death. This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Lizzy Peabody. Okay, pet people.

Okay, pet people.

Think about how many pets you've ever had in your entire life.

If you're like my dad, you've had a lot, but there's one that holds a very special place in your heart.

For him, it was his dog in graduate school, a golden retriever named Tessie, who attended

every single class with him and was so inseparable from him he did not even own a leash for her. He still has a photo of

her above his desk sitting in a patch of ivy in full sunlight. Chris Willingham

says he's had this bond too with a dog named Aluka.

If you've ever seen a dog do like the puppy dance where they kind of like lower

their front half and kind of bounce around or they even do the kind of

the funky chicken where they lay on their back. So she had the

ability just be yeah just being a a silly dog. Luca was a German shepherd and

she wasn't just a pet like Chris she was a marine.

When I would kid up, she would start getting excited.

I put her vest on.

The guys knew no more petting at that point.

And she knew it was game time.

See, Chris was a dog handler in the US Marine Corps for 20 years, where dogs serve important roles.

Luca's job was to sniff out buildings and roadways for improvised explosive devices or IEDs, essentially homemade bombs.

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