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Zack Keithy, our author, is a certified veterinarian technician (UC Blue Ash) for over 6 years (contact him here). The articles written here are based on his expertise and experience, combined with a review by our expert vet reviewers including Dr M. Tarantino. Learn more about us here.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, sales director Michael Hingson, blind since birth, arrived for work on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center’s Tower One. His guide dog, a yellow Labrador Retriever named Roselle, settled into her usual spot beneath his desk. At 8:45 a.m., a hijacked jetliner struck the tower 18 floors above them.
After calling his wife, Karen, and confirming his staff had begun evacuating, Hingson and Roselle started the descent down 78 flights of emergency stairs. Roselle worked steadily through smoke, falling debris, and streams of fleeing office workers, guiding Hingson methodically all the way to the lobby. By the time they reached the sidewalk outside, Tower Two had already been struck and was starting to collapse. Hingson later described the sound of it coming down as being like a metal and concrete waterfall.
The pair ran for cover down a nearby subway entrance. When they emerged, Tower One was collapsing above them, sending ash and debris raining down over the area. Roselle led Hingson roughly 40 blocks through the chaos to a friend’s apartment, where they finally reached safety.
In the weeks that followed, Hingson found himself fielding interview requests from major television hosts, including Larry King, Regis and Kelly, and Bryant Gumbel, all searching for a story of hope to come out of the tragedy. He and Roselle quickly became recognizable public figures, a status that followed Hingson for years afterward, with strangers in airports still stopping him to say they recognized him as the man with the dog from 9/11.
After the attacks, Hingson returned to California to work with Guide Dogs for the Blind, the organization that had originally trained Roselle, and went on to write several books about their partnership. Roselle received the American Kennel Club’s Award for Canine Excellence in the service dog category in 2002. She died in June 2011 at the age of 14, with Michael and Karen Hingson by her side.
Behind the story: Roselle’s performance that morning reflects something guide dog trainers consistently point to: a well-trained service dog’s core job is to stay task-focused under conditions that would overwhelm most animals, including loud noise, panicked crowds, and unfamiliar obstacles. Guide dogs are specifically selected and trained for temperament stability years before they’re ever matched with a handler, which is part of why organizations like Guide Dogs for the Blind report such long, rigorous training and screening pipelines. Roselle’s story is still used in service dog training circles today as one of the clearest real-world examples of that training holding under extreme, life-or-death pressure.
Original story here.
