She was saluted once more by Texas Law enforcement on her way out of the hospital, with her body draped in an American flag. (Andrea Booher/FEMA) Bretagne, pictured with her handler Denise Corliss and resting in a gurney, was one of the last known surviving 9/11 search dogs.
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On her last walk into Fairfield Animal Hospital veterinary office in Cypress, Texas, she got a hero’s salute.
Denise Corliss and her search dog Bretagne in 2002.
The golden retriever was retired from duty, but moved a little slower since her rescuing days and was in poor health.
Almost 100 other search and rescue dogs were used after 9/11 to try to find and save people trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Centre.
Bretagne was 2 years old when she and her handler, Denise Corliss, were part of the Texas Task Force 1 sent to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan after two hijacked airlines brought down the Twin Towers.
In addition to her service at ground zero, Bretagne and Corliss were also deployed to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Rita.
Bretagne’s body was escorted to College Station, where a necropsy will be performed.
While she was in NY past year, she was treated to a suite at 1 Hotel Central Park and took a taxi ride through Times Square.
Bretagne was 8 weeks old when she met Corliss, a volunteer firefighter with the Cy-Fair Fire Department, who was seeking a special dog to train for disaster work.
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A teammate wrote this of Bretagne, “If you ask anybody whoever knew or trained with Bretagne, they would tell you ‘Oh she just loves me!'”.
