9/11 & the wonderful Guide dogs Part 1

On this day. The anniversary of 9/11. I wanted to write about the incredible story of both Roselle & Salty & their owners. These were 2 Beautiful yellow Labrador retrievers. Clever Guide dogs that helped their owners Michael Hingson & Omar Rivera to safety from different floors in Tower 1, the North Tower, on that day September 11th 2001.

Part 1 of 2

Roselles Story

Roselle was Michael’s 5th guide dog. Meeting her in 1999. Micheal has an eye condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity. This can occur in premature babies when blood vessels grow abnormally in the retina & cause loss of vision.

She was asleep on the 78th floor, where Micheal worked as a computer salesman, when the American Airlines 11 plane crashed into the Tower 15 floors above them.

Micheal called his wife, Karen, and then made sure his staff evacuated.

Because this had just happened, Micheals wife couldn’t say what had happened as nothing was on the news yet.

Despite the panic, confusion, darkness & sheer seriousness of the situation. Roselle led Micheal & 30 other people to safety that day. Down 1,463 steps. Despite the noise & horror all around them all.

This wonderful dog even stopped half way down to greet a firefighter heading up the stairs to rescue people further up.

The journey took just over an hour & when outside, Tower 2 had started to collapse. Even through they were being hit by numerous bits of building, rubbish, vast amounts of toxic dust, Roselle stayed focused enough to get Micheal to a underground subway, where they met & helped a lady who had been blinded by debris that day.

After this, Micheal went on to work in public relations for the Guide Dogs for the Blind appearing on television and parades with Roselle by his side.

In 2004. immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, which is your own platelets in your body attacking each other, was discovered to be the cause of Roselle being ill.

In 2007, due to kidney damage from the medication, she was retired from guiding and stayed with Michael as a companion.

In 2011. Micheal noticed something wasn’t right & took her to the vets.

Part 2 next post

PICTURE DESCRIPTION 2 men in dark long coats. 2 yellow Labradors on a lead with medals around their necks. In the background are skyscrapers