The Dogs of 9/11… Carefully combing through the mountainous chaos are the German-shepherd K-9s of the New York Police Department. All the original SAR (Search and Rescue) dogs working with them, some 350 canines of every breed and mix, have now gone home. Their initial rescue effort spanned the first five days following 9/11, and then a month after that as they and volunteers from fifty states search around the clock for remains.

. . .at the end of a K9's shift a veterinarian checks them over, administering sub cutaneous fluids as needed, rinsing out eyes, inspecting all four pads and in between toes for shard cuts, listening to heart and lungs for damage from possible chemical inhalation, and then rubs them down. As survivors are no longer being found the K9 crew becomes discouraged; to lift a dog's spirit, live people hide so that when they are found the dogs can be rewarded with praise and hugs. . . .