Congratulations to Roselle for being named the 2011 American Hero Dog!

They have also announced that nominations for the 2012 Hero Dog Awards are now open!

Congratulations to all of the nominees and their humans.

It was a good show, overall, but way too many commercials!

What a great dog!  Ricochet surfs with people who have physical disabilities.  She not only helps them handle the surfboard, she also raises money to help them pay for their medical treatments – over $125,000 to date!

Congratulations to Ricochet for winning tonight’s Emerging Heroes category.

Check out Ricochet on Facebook.

Another border collie with a purpose.  Harley provides ears for his human.  When the doorbell rings or the smoke alarm goes off, or even if the oven timer says dinner is ready, Harley alerts his friend to the sound and makes her follow him to the source.

Nancy says she is now able to relax because Harley hears the traffic sounds when they are out walking, helping to keep her safe.

Congratulations to Harley!

Congratulations to Sage for winning the Hero Dog Award in the search and rescue category.  She has worked in Iraq, doing both search and rescue work and therapy work for the soldiers.

She actually found the body of one of the terrorists at the Pentagon on 9/11.

She is a beautiful border collie – tons of energy!  However, she developed cancer after working around some of the toxins at the Pentagon and in Iraq.   She now goes to kids’ cancer camp to provide comfort to kids who are similarly afflicted.

Way to go Sage!

Paula Abdul thought she was WINNING an award (supposedly), rather than presenting.  Then, she got so “upset”, Victoria Stillwell from “It’s Me or the Dog”  (my son’s favorite) had to present the award instead.

Many of the handlers who worked with search and rescue dogs on 9/11 are being interviewed for a piece introduced by Peter Fonda.

A bomb detection dog who worked at the towers every day was left in his kennel (because he wasn’t a search & rescue dog) when the towers collapsed.  His handler later carried his body out.  Very sad.

I remember at the time when these dogs were all injuring their paws, but wouldn’t stop looking for survivors.  The dogs just kept going.

One of the handlers now reports that the dogs were 25% search dogs and 75% therapy dogs – they did so much to give hope to all of the people who were working at the site.

Over 300 dogs served on September 11th.  Many of them have since passed on, and they are showing a photo album honoring them.  Big lump in my throat now!