Before Bretagne the golden retriever died, she received one final salute – for her hard work, for her gentle ways, for her service in that devastating place 15 years ago.

Panting at the end of a thick leash, the elderly dog was gently lifted from a truck and placed on the veterinary office sidewalk outside. Then she hobbled slowly toward the building, passing more than a dozen men and women dressed in blue, their hands raised to their foreheads in a somber salute.

After it was done, they carried away her limp body, draped in an American flag, reported the Houston Chronicle.

It was the end of the 16-year-old dog’s lifetime of service, and in some ways, the closing of a devastating chapter in the nation’s history. Bretagne was the oldest known surviving dog that scoured Ground Zero in 2001 during search-and-rescue efforts after the Twin Towers fell in New York City, said the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department. The dog’s old age led Bretagne’s longtime handler, Denise Corliss, to make the difficult decision to euthanize the dog Monday.

“Some may say that the most a dog could be is a pet,” the fire department statement said. “However, to the over 400 members of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, Bretagne was a civil servant, a hero and is family. We will remember her fondly, and continue serving the community with her as inspiration.”

Bretagne earned national fame last year when Bark Box, the New York-based dog treat delivery service, invited the golden retriever and Corliss to the big city for a canine-themed 16th birthday bash. The dog was flown in and picked up by a limousine. She was wined and dined at 1 Hotel Central Park as their first “pup of honor” and thrown a birthday party fit for humans. She even wore a party hat.

“She represents the working dogs, in the disaster box in particular,” Corliss said in a video documenting their trip. “And you know, they are all deserving for a day like today.”

Corliss brought 8-week-old Bretagne home in 1999, in hopes that she could train with the dog to be a disaster relief duo, she told NBC’s “Today” show in 2014.

In 2000, the team qualified to be official members of Texas Task Force 1, an urban search-and-rescue team. That same year, Bretagne became a full member of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department crew and the founding canine member of its K9 Search and Rescue Team, the department said. A certified FEMA disaster search dog, the golden retriever responded to multiple natural disasters across the country, including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bretagne traveled to New York City with Corliss to look for survivors amidst the rubble.At that time, she was just 2 years old. It was the duo’s first deployment, Corliss said in the Bark Box video.

The duo worked for almost two weeks, NBC’s “Today” reported. As they searched for survivors, and then remains, Bretagne became like a therapy dog, not just to Corliss but to other rescuers, too, Corliss said. Once, Bretagne ignored Corliss’s commands to sit and stay at Ground Zero, she told “Today,” instead trotting up to a somber firefighter sitting on the ground.

“She went right to that firefighter and laid down next to him and put her head on his lap,” Corliss told the show.

In her final years, Bretagne “volunteered” at a local elementary school, listening to first-graders learn to read and comforting children with autism.