In memory of 9/11

In honor of those in 9/11, for their courage and strength.















Rescue dogs of 9/11: The drama's unsung heroes

She was a 3-year-old golden-haired beauty when she got the call to respond to her first disaster.
Now, stiffer, slower and a bit gray, 13-year-old Bretagne is one of just a handful of World Trade Center rescue dogs still alive.
"We arrived on 9/12 and started working right away," said Bretagne's handler, Denise Corliss, a search-and-rescue volunteer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Bretagne had spent more than a year learning how to find survivors in concrete rubble, but her Cypress, Texas, training site was nothing like Ground Zero.


GOLDEN GIRL: Tireless golden retriever Bretagne sprang into action on her first rescue mission, an assignment after 9/11 at Ground Zero, where she searched the rubble and raised the spirits of emergency workers.

She clambered up ladders to get on top of the huge debris piles, padded across broken glass and twisted steel beams, wiggled into small spaces and crawled into dark holes, all the while sniffing through mounds of pulverized concrete searching for clues that would lead her to survivors. Like all the rescue dogs, she worked without a leash or a collar.
The dogs also didn't wear protective booties, despite the crushed glass everywhere -- they needed their claws for traction.
Every night, she was given a decontamination bath. Her eyes, ears and mouth were rinsed out, and her abraded paw pads gently cleaned.
"It was her first mission, but she worked it like a pro. She didn't get cut up or fall or get hurt," said Corliss.
But Bretagne had a couple of near misses. One day, sniffing along an elevated steel beam, she lost her footing.
"It was real wet because the fires were still smoldering and the water spray was everywhere," Corliss recalled.
"She just kind of slipped, but she used her paws to pull herself back up and kept on going. That was the only time I was a little unsettled."
Bretagne was also a magnet for distraught firefighters searching the site for fallen comrades.
"A lot of times, firefighters would come by and pet her, talk to her and tell her stories," said Corliss. One firefighter bonded so closely with Bretagne that he recognized her years later at a 9/11 memorial.
The gregarious golden retriever has seen several national disasters since 9/11 -- she responded to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, going into flooded areas to find those unable to evacuate. She's retired now, but has a hard time accepting it, said Corliss.
When Corliss heads out with her new search dog, Aid'n, Bretagne always wants to go along.
"I bring her to the training site sometimes and let her run a few drills -- she's still got it," said the proud handler.
Like Bretagne, the majority of 100 or so FEMA dogs sent to Ground Zero stayed only about 10 days at Ground Zero. But several times, he expressed interest in a scent he'd picked up.
"His training was good. He didn't alert, which meant whatever he smelled wasn't alive, but he reacted enough so that I'd know to bring over a cadaver dog," his trainer said. "It's always hard when you don't find survivors."
The hardworking German shepherd, who will be 13 in October, just retired last year. He's in good shape, but no longer has the endurance for fieldwork, Zintsmaster said.
Some of the 9/11 rescue dogs have been incredibly long-lived. Tara, from Ipswich, Mass., got to Ground Zero the night of the disaster and stayed eight days.
She was one of the oldest survivors, until she died last year at age 16.