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times past“Until the LastStone Is Turned”Following the theme of this issue’s “President’s Letter,” we present excerpts from a GAZETTE interview with NYPDK-9 chief Lieutenant Dan Donadio. The date is September 28, 2001. Donadio’s dogs and handlers are still ploddingthrough the smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center.How are you and your dogs doing?Good. A little tired—we’re working 12-hour tours—but we’re doing good. A couple of dogs have minorinjuries, and the officers are bruised up, but nothingserious.How is your mission currently defined?We’re looking for survivors. We want to find someonealive. I will have dogs there until the last stone isturned.[A few days after this conversation, thesearch-and-rescue mission shifted tosearch and recovery.]Do the kids say that they want to grow up to becops and firefighters?Sure. But I remind them that you don’t have to weara uniform to be a hero. There were a lot of civilianheroes out there, especially in those first few days. Welost so many firemen and cops, but we also lost a lotof fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. Thisis a story with thousands of heroes.Donadio retired from the NYPD in 2006.Has all this sunk in yet?After 20 years on the job, youthink you’ve seen it all. But thesmoke and the fire—it was a horrormovie. Unreal. Chilling. Butwe’ve been so busy that, no, Idon’t think it has really sunk in.When I’m driving to work, alonein my car, it’ll hit me. I still can’tbring myself to look over to theManhattan skyline where theTwin Towers were.But you know when we getmost emotional? Trying torespond to the support we’re gettingfrom all over the world. Youopen these letters from the kids,and from the dog lovers, and theyjust make you want to cry, to thepoint where you have to stopreading. We have them all tackedup here on the wall. Just yesterday,before I went out to the site,I was opening these packagesfrom kids in Texas, with littletreats and letters from the dogs.Call to Duty, oil on canvas, by Charlotte Sorré, salutes the workingK-9s of 9/11. It hangs at AKC headquarters in New York.AKC ART COLLECTIONA K C G A Z E T T E • 7 • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2