Roselle, The Guide Dog Who Led Her Blind Owner To Safety
Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesMichael Hingson (right) with his Labrador retriever, Roselle, shaking hands with Hal Wilson, who searched Ground Zero with his own 9/11 rescue dog in the aftermath of the attacks.
Michael Hingson was born blind. But thankfully, he had his trusty guide dog, Roselle, to help him navigate life. There was perhaps no day that showed the bond between Hingson and Roselle better than Sept. 11, 2001.
On that fateful day, Hingson was working in his office on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower when he heard a sudden boom — and then the building shuddered. As others around them began to flee, Roselle calmly guided Hingson out of the office and to the closest stairwell.
Over the next hour, Roselle led Hingson down 1,463 steps. Along the way, she gave kisses to other panicked office workers who were making the long trek to the ground floor.
Firefighters heading up the stairs also stopped to pet Roselle, and she may have been one of their final positive memories before they perished when the towers collapsed. Indeed, the South Tower fell just as Hingson and Roselle exited the World Trade Center, and she guided Hingson into a subway entrance to escape the debris.
Unfortunately, Hingson believes that the toxic air they breathed that day may have contributed to Roselle’s diagnosis of thrombocytopenia in 2004, a disease that affects blood platelets. Remarkably, however, Roselle lived on until 2011 — with Hingson by her side the entire time.
