9•11•2001

Today, Holding Hope pauses to remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001, the families whose lives changed forever, and the first responders who ran toward devastation when everyone else was trying to escape.

And as an organization built around our love for animals, we also remember the four-legged heroes who went to work beside them.

In the days following the attacks, hundreds of search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers worked through the rubble at Ground Zero and the Pentagon. They climbed across unstable debris, searched tirelessly for survivors and victims, and provided something just as important when hope was becoming difficult to find — comfort.

They didn’t understand terrorism.

They didn’t understand why the world had suddenly changed.

They simply knew they had a job to do, a person beside them to trust, and people who needed them.

Some searched.

Some rescued.

Some recovered.

Some comforted exhausted first responders who had witnessed the unimaginable.

All served. 

There is something especially powerful about remembering that on one of America’s darkest days, dogs did what dogs have always done for us:

They stayed beside us.

Today we honor every life lost, every firefighter, police officer, EMT, dispatcher, service member, volunteer and civilian affected by September 11th — and every working dog and handler who answered the call.

May we never forget the lives lost.

May we never forget the heroes.

And may we never forget the paw prints left among their footprints.

9•11•2001 — Never Forgotten.

With remembrance and gratitude,

Holding Hope Inc.