Today on the 17th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, people turn their thoughts to the lost and to the heroes who helped save lives on that day. Among the countless human heroes, sung and unsung, are the rescue dogs who helped scour the rubble for signs of life. The service dogs that responded to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the wake of the attacks should not be forgotten.
Roughly 350 Search and Rescue Dogs worked tirelessly in the tragic aftermath searching for survivors and human remains. Sifting through the rubble, blinded by smoke and debris, the dogs battled exhaustion and emotional distress.
After hours of searching and finding no one alive, some handlers would ask volunteers to hide amidst the rubble to be “located”, helping to raise the dogs’ spirits. Even when the search mission became one of recovery instead of rescue, the dogs carried on diligently, providing love and peace to the families of the victims.
Most Search and Rescue Dogs are trained by non-government organizations, often with civilian handlers; many of the teams that responded to Ground Zero did so on a volunteer basis as they knew their country needed them.
All of us here at a Paws Give Me Purpose pay tribute to those four-legged heroes who walk among us and to those who have left indelible paw prints upon our hearts.
