Sept. 11 search-and-rescue puppies on sale

The nonprofit Tribute Center situated near the World Trade Center site in New York is selling Sept. 11 search-and-rescue puppy dolls.

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The stuffed toys, which are sold for $11.95, are designed as a tribute to the dogs that helped search wreckage at Ground Zero for survivors after the 2001 terrorist attacks, The New York Times reported Friday.

"Those of us who were there understand the impact that the presence of these dogs had," said Lynn Tierney, president of the center and a former deputy fire commissioner who was present during rescue operations after Sept. 11. "Their job is noble and necessary. Their handlers are extraordinary people. This is a way of paying tribute to them."

The 8-inch-tall toys are dressed in blue T-shirts decorated with two offset squares representing the void left by the World Trade Center towers. The Tribute Center also sells T-shirts, polo shirts, baseball caps and coffee mugs decorated with the logo. Sales of the items go toward paying the center's operating costs.