They didn't know what a terrorist attack was. They just knew people needed finding, so they went in.
Nearly 300 search and rescue dogs worked Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville in the days after September 11. Labradors, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, dogs with names like Bretagne, Riley, and Trakr, climbing over unstable rubble that was still hot underneath, breathing in the same toxic dust that would go on to kill firefighters years later. Handlers said the dogs got depressed when days went by without finding anyone alive, so rescuers started hiding in the rubble themselves just so the dogs could have a save and keep their spirits up to keep working.
Bretagne was the last known 9/11 search dog. She worked sixteen years after the towers fell before she passed in 2016, and a line of firefighters stood and saluted her on her way into the vet's office for the final time.
These dogs didn't get asked to go. They just went, because that's what they were built to do, and they gave everything they had looking for people who were already gone.
Twenty five years on, they deserve to be remembered by name same as anybody else who ran toward it that day.
Tomorrow is @BCFootball’s Red Bandana Game on ESPN2.
I don’t think there’s a better 14 minutes of TV that ESPN has ever done.
I watch this once a year.
POWERFUL: Georgia WR Jeremy Bell lost his brother in the last week, went home for the funeral, buried him and helped take care of his family.
Despite everything he was going through, Bell still wanted to practice — then went out and SCORED a TD this week.