Guide dogs – One Vision Blog

9/11 & the wonderful Guide Dogs Part 2

Posted on 11th Sep 2024 by One Vision

Roselle sadly died 2 days later from stomach ulcer complications. She was 13 years old.

Micheal & his wife set up Roselle’s Dream Foundation to raise money to help adults & children with visual impairment engage fully in everyday life.

Micheal is 74 years old. he travels the world as inspirational speaker around awareness of sightloss & his story with Roselle.

Saltys Story

Salty was trained as a guide dog in 1998. He was with Omar Rivera 7 floors below Micheal & Roselle, on the 71st floor.

Omar went blind 14 years previously due to Glaucoma & that morning he was preparing for a meeting for his Senior Systems Designer job with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. He had just hit the ‘print’ command on his computer at about 8.45 am, when he heard a crashing, whooshing, sound coming from 22 floors above him.

Omar popped Sally’s harness on. They headed out into a very smoky, noisy stairwell. He was worried about the dog so let his harness go so he could make his own way, but Salty wasn’t having that.

Halfway down a co-worker who was with Omar tried to take the harness off him. Salty still wouldn’t go & didn’t move until the harness was back on.

They made it down to the street level, & when the tower collapsed, which was only 2 blocks away, they ran as fast as they could. Salty opened a path for Omar.

Salty retired in 2007. The dog relaxed, played obsessively with tennis balls until he died at age 11 in 2008.

Omar appeared in Allison Argo’s film ‘9/11: Where Were You?’ for National Geographic on the 10-year anniversary of the attacks.

Both dogs were awarded the Dickin Medal on March 5th 2002. The PDSA Dickin Medal is awarded by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, a UK-based veterinary charity. It is considered the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross for bravery.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION 1 Micheal, a man in a grey shirt looks down whilst holding a yellow labrador dog.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION 2 A dark haired man, Omar, kneeling with white shirt looks up. Yellow Labrador by his side.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION 3 Bronze coloured round Medal. PDSA for gallantry we also serve inscription.

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9/11 & the wonderful Guide dogs Part 1

Posted on 11th Sep 202411th Sep 2024 by One Vision

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

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

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Day Tripper

Posted on 22nd Sep 202322nd Sep 2023 by One Vision

I had the pleasure recently of spending some time with the lovely people at my local sight loss group I’m involved in, which also included some of my friends lovely guide dogs!

We went on a trip to Bridlington. We’ve been before and we all really enjoyed it. Laughs, walking, drinks, dinner, sunshine, making new friends and spending time with old ones. If you are umming and arring about joining a group like this, please go. I was the same, but it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

We are a mixed aged group. I’m around in the middle somewhere. They are a very funny, welcoming and caring bunch.

Anyway, back to the doggos.

Exceptionally clever. These dogs cost approximately £35,000 per dog to train as a guide dog for people with sight impairment or total blindness. Which is rare as, between 2 to 8% of people who are visually impaired cannot see anything at all. Total blindness.

Most people with a Guide dog or a white cane of any sort can see something. Even if it’s just colours, shapes and shadows.

There are currently 2 million people living with sightloss in Britain today. 340,000 of these people registered as Blind or partially sighted.

You have to be matched with a dog once you’ve been accepted for one. Then there is extensive training with you both to make sure you are compatible and suit each other.

Here are a few photographs from the day below.