Bretagne, the last living 9/11 Search and Rescue dog and a true hero, was laid to rest yesterday in Texas. Before heading off to that great fire hydrant in the sky Bretagne (pronounced ‘Brittany’) was given a hero’s salute by the local Fire Department as the 16-year-old golden retriever happily waddled her way into the veterinary office.
(Scroll below to see the montage of Bretagne’s Super Sweet 16 birthday party in NYC last year)
This amazing dog joined the Cy-Fair Search and Rescue Team back in 2000, and in addition to being the last living 9/11 Search and Rescue dog she also helped sift through the rubble of Hurricane Katrina. She lived a truly extraordinary life but old age got the best of her, and was wholly deserving of the hero’s salute that she received.
Bretagne would’ve turned 17 this August, and it seems like just yesterday I was blogging about the surprise 16th birthday party for Bretagne after her handler brought the 16-year-old golden retriever from Texas to NYC to revisit Ground Zero. That was a pretty fun blog post for me to put together, one that over thirteen thousand of you bros shared on Facebook, but today’s homage to the last living 9/11 Search and Rescue dog just brings a deep sadness to my heart.
Prior to covering Bretagne’s surprise birthday party back in September most of us first learned of this beloved dog’s 9/11 Search and Rescue contributions when I covered her here on the site back in September of 2014. I think it’s safe to say that over the years I’ve developed a serious soft spot in my heart for this hero dog.
She was a very, very good girl, and she played an extraordinary part in a very tragic chapter of American history. I wish I had something more profound to say here but I’m getting a little choked up at the moment (as you can guess I’m sort of a dog-obsessed bro who has owned dogs my entire life). This is my 3rd blog post about Bretagne in the past three years and I guess that I always knew this was coming, she was an old girl who has lived a long and fruitful life. Death isn’t tragic when its someone’s time to go, when that person has lived life to the fullest, and yesterday was Bretagne’s time. Her legacy will live on forever.
Just so that we didn’t end this post on a somber note I wanted to toss in the montage of Bretagne’s surprise Sweet 16 birthday party that took place last year in NYC, one of the best days of Bretagne’s life:
(h/t Click2Houston)