I am a Rottweiler

I was brought into this world by a loving breeder who has spent the last 30 years in loving dedication to my breed. I was trained by a man or woman, who has been equally dedicated to my breed.

Over the last few years, you have gotten e-mails from people who said I was vicious, because criminal humans made less than 0.0001% of my breed into criminal dogs. And because human parents never taught their children how to respect and stay away from large animals of any kind.

You wanted my breeder to abandon her love and care of my breed. You wanted her to never make another dog like me. You wanted to keep me in a small pen and make me wear a muzzle.

Some of you, wanted us all killed for no reason. I never growled at a human. I never attacked a human. But you said I was a potential danger and I needed to be destroyed.

You wanted the same done to my brothers and sisters in the working dog world. You came for the pit bulls, you came for the German Shepherds, you came for the Dobermans, and you came for us, the Rottweilers.

Today I sat at my master's feet in NY. The master you said was crazy to want a Rottweiler. We cried, but kept on working. You saw the sadness in my eyes. I was bred to work. I was trained to find. I search and I find. My reward is a scratch on the head and maybe a hug from the person I find.

Those I find who can't scratch my head - I cry.

My fellow searchers have lost their lives falling in this rubble. My feet are cut by glass and metal. But my trainer and I keep searching. We are looking for your spouses, your children, your parents, your friends, your coworkers and your neighbors. I am risking the life you wished to deny me. I am doing what NO ONE else can. If I were not here, you would have no where else to turn for help or hope.

When you see my trainer and I sleeping on the sidewalk or climbing over the mountain of rubble, because just one of your human lives is important to me, look into my eyes and remember the sacrifice and work that "dangerous" dogs like me have done for thousands of years and think about a world without me.

All I ask is let me live. Let my breeder continue to make it possible for dogs, like me, to give our lives for yours. In disasters, in wars, and just protecting your homes and families, for thousands of years to come.