09/14/2026
On the morning of September 11, 2001, two yellow Labrador guide dogs arrived for work inside Tower 1 of the World Trade Center.
One was named Salty.
The other was Roselle.
They were seven floors apart and had never been trained for a disaster like the one about to unfold.
Salty was on the 71st floor with his owner, Omar Rivera, a blind senior systems designer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
When American Airlines Flight 11 struck the tower, the building shook and frightened workers began filling the stairwell.
Salty led Rivera into the crowd and started guiding him down.
As the stairwell became hotter and the evacuation grew more difficult, Rivera worried that Salty might not survive if he remained beside him.
He released the dog’s harness so Salty could escape on his own.
But Salty refused to leave.
He returned to Rivera’s side and continued guiding him down the stairs.
Rivera’s supervisor, Donna Enright, remained with them. When another co-worker tried to take Salty’s lead halfway down, Salty wouldn’t continue without Rivera beside him.
Their descent took approximately one hour and 15 minutes.
Salty led Rivera out of the tower and several blocks away. They were two or three blocks from the building when the North Tower collapsed behind them.
Seven floors above them, Roselle was asleep beneath the desk of her owner, Michael Hingson.
Hingson, who had been blind since birth, managed the New York office of a computer technology company. His office was on the 78th floor.
The plane struck 15 floors above them.
The impact violently shook the building and caused it to tilt before settling back into place. Roselle woke and calmly waited beside Hingson.
After making sure his employees and visitors were evacuating, Hingson took Roselle’s harness and gave her the command to move forward.
She led him to Stairwell B.
Their escape required both of them to work together. Hingson knew where they needed to go and gave Roselle directions, while she guided him around people, debris and other obstacles.
Together, they descended 1,463 stairs.
The stairwell was crowded and growing hotter, but Roselle remained focused. Hingson kept praising her as they walked, knowing that his calm voice would reassure her.
At one point, a frightened woman stopped and said she couldn’t continue.
Hingson and several others gathered around her and encouraged her. Roselle comforted the woman with kisses before everyone resumed the long descent.
They also passed firefighters carrying heavy equipment toward the burning floors above.
Some stopped briefly to pet Roselle. She greeted them with kisses before they continued climbing.
After reaching the street, Roselle led Hingson and his colleague David Frank away from the building.
Then the South Tower began to collapse nearby.
As people ran from the approaching cloud of dust and debris, Roselle guided Hingson down the entrance of a subway station.
Approximately 10 minutes later, the North Tower they had just escaped collapsed too.
Roselle eventually guided Hingson approximately 40 blocks through Manhattan until they reached a friend’s apartment.
On March 5, 2002, Salty and Roselle each received the PDSA Dickin Medal, one of the world’s most distinguished awards for animal gallantry.
Their shared citation honored them for remaining loyally beside their blind owners and courageously leading them down more than 70 floors to safety.
Salty died on March 28, 2008.
Roselle died on June 26, 2011. A few months later, more than 400,000 votes made her the first American Hero Dog of the Year.
Neither dog knew that millions of people would remember what happened that morning.
They only knew that the person who trusted them was in danger.
And when they were needed most, neither one left his side.
