Article on Sirius

An Article on Sirius in USA Today

Officer Lim sent me a link to this article in USA Today. I can tell from his words that his emotions are still raw..duh! I can't help but cry when I read about this heroic dog.

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A dog's water bowl turned up in the rubble at Ground Zero. The FBI gave it to the owner's partner and closest friend, Port Authority police Officer David Lim.

The bowl belonged to Sirius, a bomb-sniffing dog that Lim left in his kennel in the World Trade Center basement on Sept. 11 when he ran upstairs to help evacuate the north tower. When the towers collapsed, Sirius was killed.

Lim, 50, was one of just 20 people to emerge alive from the collapsed towers. He crawled up a north tower stairway after the building collapsed and came out atop the rubble.

Afterward, he overcame his shyness and for a year traveled around the country to tell his story, honor the dead and be a role model for Asians, he says.

When Lim went back to the K-9 unit, he was paired with Sprig, a black Lab. Last year, when he was promoted to sergeant, it meant reassignment from K-9. So the department allowed Sprig to take early retirement (at age 6) and become Lim's pet.

Saying goodbye to a second dog would have been more than Lim could bear, he says. "I don't think I would have taken the promotion. ... To go home and tell my kids I traded the dog for stripes?"

He still works on the front line of defense, patrolling John F. Kennedy International Airport.

For a time, Lim says, "it was hard for me to figure out what (Sirius') contribution was on that particular day. If I would have taken that dog and left the building with him, nobody would have faulted me. I'd have saved the one life I was responsible for. But I told him I would come back for him and went to help the people. And he didn't make it, and I did."

Finally, he inscribed on Sirius' bowl the answer to the question that troubled him: "I gave my life so you could save others."