A guard of honour for Bretagne in Texas. Photo / Facebook
A guard of honour for Bretagne in Texas. Photo / Facebook
Before Bretagne the golden retriever died, she received one final salute - for her hard work, for her gentle ways, for her service in that devastating place 15 years ago.
Panting at the end of a thick leash, the elderly dog was gently lifted from a truck and placed on the veterinary office pavement outside. Then she hobbled slowing towards the building, passing more than a dozen men and women dressed in blue, their hands raised to their foreheads in a sad salute.
After it was done, they carried away her limp body, draped in an American flag, reported the Houston Chronicle.
It was the end of the 16-year-old dog's lifetime of service, and in some ways, the closing of a devastating chapter in America's history. Bretagne was the oldest known surviving dog that scoured Ground Zero in 2001 during search and rescue efforts after the Twin Towers fell in New York City, said the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, where the golden retriever was a member of the crew. Old age led Bretagne's longtime handler, Denise Corliss, to make the difficult decision to euthanise the dog on Tuesday.
"Some may say that the most a dog could be is a pet," the fire department statement said. "However, to the over 400 members of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, Bretagne was a civil servant, a hero and is family. We will remember her fondly, and continue serving the community with her as inspiration."
A certified FEMA disaster search dog, Bretagneresponded to multiple natural disasters across the country, including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Photo / Facebook
Bretagne earned national fame last year when Bark Box, a New York-based dog treat delivery service, invited the golden retriever and Corliss to the big city for a canine-themed 16th birthday bash. The dog was flown in an airplane and picked up by a limousine. She was wined and dined at 1 Hotel Central Park as their first "pup of honour" and thrown a birthday party fit for humans. She even wore a party hat.
"She represents the working dogs, in the disaster box in particular," Corliss said in a video documenting their trip. "And you know, they are all deserving for a day like today."
Corliss and Bretagne became a team in 1999, when the electrical engineer brought the 8-week-old puppy home in hopes that she, as a civilian, could train with the dog to be a disaster relief duo, she told NBC's Today in 2014.
"I was so excited about doing this, but I didn't have the appreciation of how life-changing it would be," Corliss said. "It took 20 to 30 hours a week easily to stay on top of training. This is what I did when I wasn't at work."
In 2000, she learned they'd qualified to be official members of Texas Task Force 1, an urban search and rescue team.
That same year, Bretagne became a full member of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department crew and the founding canine member of its K9 Search and Rescue Team, the department said. A certified FEMA disaster search dog, the golden retriever responded to multiple natural disasters across the country, including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, and after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, Bretagne travelled to New York City with Corliss to look for survivors amidst the rubble.
Bretagne during the search and rescue mission at the World Trade Centre after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
At that time, she was just 2 years old. It was the duo's first deployment, Corliss said in the Bark Box video.
"We were there to try to find survivors, and when our task force arrived in Ground Zero, I just couldn't believe the magnitude of it. And then I looked down to her and she seemed stoked and ready to board," Corliss said. "Towards the end of our mission, it changed from a search mission to a recovery mission. I was just so grateful to have a K9 partner that helped me get through it."
The duo worked for almost two weeks, NBC reported, searching for 12-hour shifts but never finding any survivors. On Bretagne's first mission, Corliss told the TV station, she slipped and fell from a wet metal beam but quickly recovered.
As they continued searching for survivors, and then remains, Bretagne became like a therapy job, not to just Corliss, but other volunteers. Once, Bretagne ignored Corliss's commands to sit and stay at Ground Zero, she said, instead trotting up to a disconsolate firefighter sitting on the ground.
"I was surprised that she wasn't listening to me, but she really wasn't - it was like she was flipping me the paw," Corliss told NBC. "She went right to that firefighter and laid down next to him and put her head on his lap."
In her final years, Bretagne "volunteered" at a local primary school, listening to pupils learn to read and comforting children with autism. Corliss took the dog to meet former President George H.W. Bush last year, AP reported, and was nominated for the Hero Dog Award from the American Humane Association in 2014.
"She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, 'Put me in, coach!'" Corliss said about the dog in 2014. "She absolutely loves it."
