Statue eyed for 9/11 hero canine

Statue eyed for9/11 hero canine
By JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

Sirius, killed on 9/11, and Port Authority Police Officer David Lim when they met President Clinton.

-->The only police dog killed in the World Trade Center attacks could be honored with a statue on Coney Island, the Daily News has learned.

Sirius, the bomb-sniffing dog who was buried under the South Tower, could be immortalized near the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance 9/11 memorial if $240,000 is raised, organizers said.
It would be the first memorial to honor the heroic pooch.

"I'm very grateful because in a lot of different venues the dog isn't as important as the people - but he is important to me," said Port Authority Police Sgt. David Lim, Sirius' owner at the time of the attacks.

Designed by artist Peter Kasten, the statue would stand at Keyspan Park, near the tribute wall that already honors 137 firefighters, 11 police officers and seven Port Authority cops.

The life-size bronze statue depicts a Port Authority officer with his arm around the golden Labrador Retriever. It would accompany statues of two firemen and an ESU police officer.

About $50,000 has already been raised, but Brooklyn Memorial Wall founder Sol Moglen said the cost of the statue and 259 additional plaques could run to $240,000.

"It's surprising when you speak to people and they don't even know a dog was killed, or that two FBI agents and one Secret Service man was killed," said Moglen, whose goal for the Memorial Wall to include Sirius and all 414 of the first responders who lost their lives that day by December.

The last Lim saw of Sirius, his partner since 2000, was in the Port Authority office below the South Tower.

The team spent the morning inspecting trucks near Barclay St., but when the 21-year Port Authority veteran heard rumbling, he left Sirius at the site to go help others at the North Tower.

Both Lim and the dog were buried in rubble when the towers collapsed, but only the Long Island father of two walked away - five hours later.

"A lot of people who've heard my story say that they didn't know anyone personally who died on 9/11," said Lim, 49, who was a Port Authority police officer at the time but has since been promoted to sergeant. "But they had a dog that died. That almost touched them more than anything else."