He's was an unconventional hero but a hero nonetheless. Jake, a courageous black lab who spent the days following 9/11 burrowing through smoking debris to find survivors has died of cancer at the age of 12, after one last walk with his owner, Mary Flood. Jake was bred trained to be a rescue dog -- he himself was rescued from the streets where he had been abandoned with a broken leg and a dislocated hip. But regardless, he proved himself as a hero when the world changed at the blink of an eye.
Though 9/11 has been linked to a rare form of cancer, it's thought that the reason for Jake's diagnosis and death was simply old age.
