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The
World Trade Center Disaster
 Ruger,
a 4-year-old German shepherd and his owner, Bob Gleeson were one of
the many pairs of heroes on 9-11. Ruger and his owner arrived on September 11
and worked for the next four days.
In that time, Ruger and his owner located the bodies of six firemen
who were lost that day. Mr.
Gleeson and Ruger are members of the Adirondack Rescue Dog Association
(ARDA).
Ruger is
trained to detect the scent of living people as well as the scent of
deceased people. When Ruger
was done working he slept for 24 hours straight. His owner, Mr. Gleeson was very proud of him.
 Servus,
a 9-year-old Belgium shepherd and his partner Chris were looking for
survivors on September 13 when Servus fell into a cloud of white dust. Servus had landed in a pile of white ash from
the destruction of the World Trade Center. The dust had gone right into Servus’s nose and mouth and Servus
was suffocating. Quickly his
partner Chris picked up Servus and got down the hill and started calling
for help. Servus was dying. Soon many people came running to help the dog, including a nurse.
She started to give Servus an IV of fluids while firemen poured
water onto Servus’s face. After a few seconds all the dust, which turned
out to be concrete came running out of his mouth and nose. Servus was still having a hard time trying
to breath so they found an ambulance and they rushed him to an animal
hospital where veterinarians took care of him.
After a few hours they let Servus go, but he could not work anymore.
His nostrils were so sore he would not be able to smell for scents.
 Ricky,
a 3-year-old Rat Terrier was the smallest search and rescue dog to work
at the World Trade Center. In
fact he is the smallest search dog in the country.
He is 17 inches tall and weighs 18 pounds.
He can get into spaces that the bigger dogs cannot. Ricky worked for 10 days with his trainer Janet
Linker. They belong to the Puget
Sound Urban Search and Rescue. Ricky
and his trainer worked with another team and together they located some
of the victims. It took two years
to train Ricky. He lives with
his trainer Janet. He was very
tired when he was done and after his 10 days of working he and his trainer
went home.
Not all of
the dogs at the World Trade Center were search and rescue dogs. Some were therapy pets. These dogs were there to help the workers feel
better. When the men were tired
the therapy dogs would go up to them and lick them and snuggle next
to them. It would make the workers feel better right
away. Two dogs that were there
for therapy were Tivka, a 2-year-old Keeshound and Kate,
a 3-year-old yellow Labrador retriever.
They belong to the Hope Crisis and Response Team of Eugene, Oregon. They worked on the boat that was used to transport
family members to the World Trade Center site. They would just roam the boat and people would
reach down and pet and kiss the dogs.
They also went to the places where workers were eating and they
would do the same things to the workers.
The workers would be happy for a little while until they had
to go back to work.
 Dorado,
a 2-year-old Lab Retriever was certainly “man's best friend” on September
11, 2001 when he helped to guide his blind owner down 70 floors after
the north tower was hit by a plane.
Mr. Rivera tells the story of how he unleashed his dog Dorado
and expected the dog to take off. How
happy he was that Dorado would not go without him.
Dorado nudged and pushed his owner down the stairs and did not
leave his side. After one scary moment, a crowd of people pushing
their way down separated Dorado from Mr. Rivera. Mr. Rivera was left alone, but only for a few
minutes. After some time passed
Mr. Rivera felt the dog pushing at his leg again. Dorado came back for
him! They were joined by a woman who also helped Mr. Dorado get down
the stairs. It took all three of them one hour to walk down the 70 floors.
Shortly after the tower collapsed.
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