DANBURY — Theodore looked out from the stage at a room full of people at Mill Ridge Intermediate School in Danbury. He held the attention of his audience and then lay patiently as children surrounded him with love. The poised golden retriever has become an international messenger for his owner, Capt. Scott Shields. He invokes the memory of his predecessor, Bear, who was honored for his search-and-rescue efforts at the World Trade Center in the hours and days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Theodore and Shields now travel around the country promoting the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation. The group raises money to pay for medical care for dogs who worked at Ground Zero and the Pentagon and to fund training and equipment for search-and-rescue teams around the country.

A fireman's boot is set up to accept donations to the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation.

Mill Ridge School invited Shields and Theodore as featured guests at the annual event called "Sky's the Limit," which gives the students a real-life story about a hero and reminds them they can accomplish their dreams.

"This story is that you don't know who your heroes are going to be," Shields told the children.

Shields, director of Marine Safety for the New York City Urban Parks Search and Rescue Team, was among the first trained emergency people who arrived at the World Trade Center site. Bear, who had some training in search and rescue, was there because he was always with Shields.

"He crawled out windows, went underneath beams. The men were useless. The dogs led us at the World Trade Center," Shields said.

In the initial days, Shields said they worked 18 hours a day searching for survivors and victims. Bear was often hoisted into pockets of rubble, glass and metal to look for bodies and was credited with making the only live finds by a canine.

"I can't tell you enough not to take your dogs for granted," Shields said.

The children were impressed, not only with Theodore's kindness but with Bear's courage, captured in a book by Shields and Nancy West called "Bear, Heart of a Hero."

"I heard that dogs rescued people when the Twin Towers fell down, "said 9-year-old third-grader Michael Di-Resto. He called Theodore "cute and cool to play with."

"It's wonderful that he (Bear) could help all those people," said Flaisa Neves, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Rogers Park Middle School. "I just learned that dogs can do lots of things that humans can't do."

Shields told the students people teamed up in time of need.

"People did incredible things together that day - teachers and doctors and the iron workers who cut the steel. And kids made peanut butter sandwiches on the dock,'' Shields said. "When bad things happen we all get together and help each other."

Shields said he used to say he didn't want a dog and now he's famous as the father of a dog. Now, he wants to help other groups have properly trained rescue dogs.

"If Bear hadn't been there that day the world would be different. Those people he found might not be here,'' Shields said. "I used to say that Bear and I were meant to do something great, I just didn't know what it was yet."

The first night that Bear worked on the site, his back was cut by a jagged piece of metal. The area became cancerous and he died a year later, Sept. 23, 2002. At his passing, the Band of the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards wrote a pipe song "Lament for the Golden Bear" in his honor. It's now part of British Martial Music.

Bear was honored by many groups for his contributions to the World Trade Center rescue effort. He was called a "hero to humanity" by the United Nations and a hero to the people of the United States by the 108th Congress. The 2003 Guinness Book of World Records called him the "most celebrated dog in the world."

"What he did and what he represents is greater than what any human can represent," Shields said.

Jamie Gherna, 7, a second-grader, was impressed with both dogs.

About Theodore, Jamie said. "He was nice. He was furry. He was kind."

About Bear, Jamie said, "He had an amazing life."

For more information, see www.bearsearchandrescue.org

To make contributions, mail to:

Bear Search and Rescue Foundation
36 Ketley Place
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
732 713 6298

Contact Eileen FitzGerald at eileenf@newstimes.com or (203) 731-3333.