Reading and Falling in Love with Roselle, the Thunder Dog
Who guided her human safely out of the World Trade Center on 9/11
Did you ever ride to the top of one of the Twin Towers?
And if so, did you take the stairs back down?
I haven’t and I’m guessing none of us did.
But that’s exactly what Michael Hingson and his guide dog Roselle had to do immediately after the first plane flew into the North Tower.
At 8:45 am, he and his coworkers on the seventy-eighth floor hear a tremendous boom. In his words, “The building shudders violently, then starts to groan and slowly tip to the southwest. In slow motion, the tower leans over something like twenty feet.”
Can you imagine?
The building slowly rightens itself. But when they look out the window, they see a huge fireball above them.
They have no idea what happened, but when someone yells, “We have to get out of here NOW!” No one objects. While people all around him scream and panic, Roselle remains calm, which helps Micheal do likewise.
That allows him to remember their fire drill training instructions. Avoid the elevators. Take the stairs. And don’t panic.
