For the first time since September 11, 2001, a national hero returned to the site of our nation's most horrific crime today, 13 years after terrorists took the lives of over 3,000 American citizens.
Say hello to Bretagne.
This 15-year-old golden retriever is the last surviving rescue dog from that awful day, and she walked the memorial site this morning with her handler, Denise Corliss.
"After 9/11, everybody - all of us, felt such sadness," Corliss told NBC's Tom Brokaw. "We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond. I really believed we could find somebody - anybody, if we could just get to the right void space. But our reality was much different."
In 2001, Bretagne worked 12-hour shifts in which she scoured the debris for trapped survivors and then also visited the courageous firefighters, physicians and police officers who were doing similar heroic work.
"You'd see firefighters sitting there, unanimated, stone-faced, no emotion and then they'd see a dog and break out into a smile," Dr. Cindy Otto, a veternatian who cared for search dogs at Ground Zero.
"Those dogs brought the power of hope. They removed the gloom for just an instant, and that was huge because it was a pretty dismal place to be."
Since 9/11, Bretagne and Corliss have dedicated their time to other disasters areas - such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ivan.
Bretagne retired from search and rescue work at age 9, but she still visits schools to assist first-graders and special needs kids learn how to read aloud.
Pretty amazing all around.
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