There’s no story we love better than when an individual rises to the occasion, and have we ever got one of those for you today.

On this day in 2001, as the world watched the horrific scene in lower Manhattan, and as those on the scene faced all kinds of obstacles, a guide dog stayed focused on her job, and helped her human get to safety.

She was a yellow lab named Roselle, and she served as a guide for Michael Hingson.

He worked as a sales manager for a tech company in an office on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center’s Tower One.

He’d been blind since infancy and started working with guide dogs as a teen.

Hingson was at his desk, preparing for a day of training seminars; the dog was underneath, taking a nap.

Then they heard an explosion and felt the tower tilt.

Hijackers had flown American Airlines Flight 11 into the other side of Tower One.

Hingson said later that Roselle was a great guide dog, though she could get nervous during thunderstorms.

But the loud noises, commotion and chaos didn’t set off her nerves; she was up and ready to move when Hingson and his colleagues started to evacuate.

Remember, evacuation in this case means taking thousands of stairs down from the 78th floor, along with lots of other people.

Few of them had any idea at that point what had caused the tower to bend, or why there was so much debris, or why they were smelling jet fuel.

Hingson and Roselle worked as a team, navigating their way down, helping others in the stairwells to stay calm, and cheering the firefighters who were heading up the stairs.

And after the two made their way out of the tower, they were able to provide more help.

In a nearby subway station, Hingson heard a woman crying; debris had blinded her and she was worried she was going to fall onto the tracks.

Hingson helped her get calm and find her bearings; he said she didn’t have to worry because he had a guide dog.

And in the aftermath of the tragedy, Roselle the dog became famous; she and Hingson appeared on talk shows that featured their story, and the guide dog won lots of fans for her bravery and dedication.

Roselle later moved with Hingson to California; he became a professional speaker.

He would retell the story of the trip down all those flights of stairs, but he also encouraged other blind people to learn Braille, to advocate for themselves and to find ways to live fulfilling and independent lives.

He later wrote a memoir about Roselle called Thunder Dog.

By the way, at the end of Roselle’s life in 2011, Guide Dogs for the Blind honored her by retiring her name.

She was one of two guide dogs whose actions on 9/11 earned them a Dickin Medal, which is sort of like the Medal of Honor for dogs.

The other was Salty, who helped a man get down from the 71st floor of Tower One.

A spokeswoman for the British Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said, “Both dogs handled themselves with tremendous courage and devotion. We are extremely proud of them.”

Michael Hingson (911Memorial.org)

Photo by gigi_nyc via Flickr/Creative Commons