The last surviving 9/11 rescue dog returned to Ground Zero for the 1st time yesterday

Bretagne is 15-years-old and believed to be the last surviving search dog that assisted on September 11th, 2001.

Prepare yourself, this story is full of feelings.

Bretagne was only two-years-old when the Twin Towers were hit on September 11th, 2001.

The Golden Retriever and her handler and owner Denise Corliss were part of the team that assisted at the site in the aftermath of the attacks as part of the search and rescue team .

Yesterday, at the venerable old age of 15, she returned to New York for the first time as a nominee for the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards. Bretagne and Denise also visited the 9/11 Memorial.

Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit, similar to how the pile was the first time I saw it,” Denise, 49, told the Today Show.

“It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before."

Bretagne at the Today studio (Pic via Facebook)

Back in 2000, Denise, an electrical engineer from Cypress, Texas, was delighted to find out that after extensive training, she and Bretagne had qualified as official members of Texas Task Force 1 - a volunteer disaster rescue team who receive no pay.

9/11 was their first deployment.

Speaking to the Today Show, Denise described the harrowing and frustrating task of searching for human survivors among the rubble.

“I really believed we could find somebody — anybody! — if we could just get to the right void space,” Corliss said. “But our reality was much different. We found all various kinds of remains, some recognizable, others not so much.”

Denise and Bretagne catch up on their sleep at Ground Zero, 2001

Bretagne and Denise were at Ground Zero for two weeks - working 12 hour shifts. As well as fulfilling the tasks of a rescue dog, Denise told host Tom Brokaw that Bretagne also took on the unexpected role of therapy dog.

Dr. Cindy Otto - a vet who helped care for the 300 or so search dogs at the site - said that the dogs were a source of comfort to many.

“You’d see firefighters sitting there, unanimated, stone-faced, no emotion, and then they’d see a dog and break out into a smile,” Otto recalled.

“Those dogs brought the power of hope. They removed the gloom for just an instant — and that was huge because it was a pretty dismal place to be.”

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While it is believed that Bretagne is the last surviving search dog from 9/11, Dr. Otto discovered after researching their lives that search and rescue dogs tend to live longer than other dogs:

“They have a bond with their handlers, they have purpose, they have physical fitness — it’s all really good for the dog and for the person who does this work,.”

Bretagne went on to work at other disaster sites - including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - but now she is retired and living out her days helping kids with special needs at a local elementary school.

Denise says that having Bretagne with her at disaster sites felt like ‘ a secret advantage’:

“I had my best friend sitting alongside me.”

Pics: Denise Corliss and Today.com.