My name is Aaron I am a 2 year old german shepherd. I live a somewhat normal life but I have a job I am a search and rescue dog. My life took a hard right turn the day of September 11th 2001.

It was a normal september day in New york city my master and I were sitting on the couch in our apartment. We were watching the news and all of a sudden a plane had hit the north tower and it exploded. Later that morning a second plane crashed into the south tower. A few minutes after the second tower was hit the phone rang my master picked up the phone and quickly answered it I could tell something was wrong by the way my master was acting so I went up to him and started licking his hand. A few moments later he hung up the phone and went into the bedroom and came out with my vest and leash that is when I knew I was going to work.

It took us about an hour to get to the Twin Towers I could tell we were getting close because the smell of burning metal, glass and flesh hit my nose. I saw the rubble of what used to be the two towers and a thick cloud of ash was in the air people were running in all directions and their was a lot of screaming and shouting but I knew that I could not let this distract me from my job. The car came to a stop and my master and I got out of the car and went over to a tent where we saw a man in a police uniform and he was telling people what to do and where to go as me and my master went up to the man he told us that we had to go through the rubble and find any survivors. A split second later I smelt the scent of someone trapped in the rubble so I started pulling my master towards the smell. I knew that I was getting close to the scent because the smell was getting stronger and a few moments later I found the source of the scent so I started pawing through the debris and I found a hand so I just kept digging hoping that they were still alive. I barked at my master to indicate that I had found someone so he came running over to me and I showed him what I have found. When he saw the person's hand he immediately started digging through the rubble. It took a few minutes for him to find the person and then my master was able to pull him out from the rubble. I could tell he was alive so I went over to him and started nudging his hand and comforting him after a few minutes I helped the man down from the rubble. A few seconds after I helped the man down from the rubble I heard someone screaming so I ran towards the source of the screaming and started digging through the rubble to try and find the person who was trapped. When I found the person's hand I alerted my master again and he ran to me and helped get her out but when she was pulled out of the rubble I heard my master say to a paramedic that she had a broken leg and that she would have to be carried down.

The searching went on well into the night. I was starting to feel very fatigued and my paws were sore from digging through all the rubble but I knew that I had to keep going. It was about midnight when my master came and told me to follow him so I did he took me to a tent and he told me that we needed to rest up for tomorrow so I laid down next to my masters cot and fell asleep. The next morning my master woke me up and fed me some food and then we both got ready to go back to work. I heard what seemed to be a child crying so I decided to get my master to follow me and after a few seconds I was able to pick up on the child's scent before i went towards the scent I turned my head to see if my master was following and he was so I started running toward the scent.