Newser – A 16-year-old golden retriever believed to have been the last surviving rescue dog from the World Trade Center attacks got a hero’s goodbye on Monday in Texas. Firefighters and other rescue officials lined the sidewalk and saluted Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”) as handler Denise Corliss walked her into a vet’s office to be euthanized, reports the Houston Chronicle. Bretagne and Corliss were among the rescue teams deployed to Ground Zero in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in what turned out to be a fruitless attempt to find survivors.
Corliss tells CNN that despite the inability to find survivors, Bretagne played an unexpectedly helpful role after the attacks: Strangers would approach and ask to pet her, and then share their own personal stories about losing loved ones on 9/11. “Dogs can be so comforting, so it makes sense to me now,” she says. “I just didn’t anticipate that, then.” Bretagne retired from her rescue duties in 2010 from the Cy-Fair Fire Department in Harris County, Texas, but she remained a fixture at the fire station.
Sometimes I honestly think that dogs are angels in disguise, hiding in plain sight disguised as dogs. If dogs are allowed into Heaven and I believe that they are may God bless this beautiful golden retriever Brittany.
Dogs are guardian angels. They wonder if humans will be allowed in heaven. I feel that it is part of their assignment to guide us there.
There was a great contribution on AT a while back about dogs & heaven which I meant to save but lost track of. Something about when we die we will know that we are getting nearer to heaven because the barking gets louder. I’m afraid that I’m not doing the quote justice but Ms Corliss know that at the appropriate time you and Bretagne will be reunited.
Looks like a picture worth painting, no?
@Curious – that’s a great idea. I would contribute to the cost of a bfh painting to be contributed to Ms. Corliss or the Cy-Fair fire department.
On September 12, 2001, a friend and I were sitting in a tiny park in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn overlooking the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. We watched trucks rumble past us with the dogs in their cages. To our right, a line of people stood waiting to donate blood at Long Island Hospital.
We knew what this was about. We took both sightings as proof that things were just about as bad as they could get.