Saying Goodbye to Roselle
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
If you have ever owned or just loved a dog, you know something of the special bond that can exist between a human and a dog. Now imagine on top of all the other reasons to love a dog, you depended on that dog live an ordinary life and you might have some insight into how intense the love is between a seeing eye dog and his or her master.
This Michael Hington and his dog Roselle:
I first learned of the story, here, (via here) and that is very much worth reading, but I think the most touching story is here at Mr. Hington’s own website. Let me give you a sampling to whet your appetite:
I have the solemn obligation to inform you that my hero guide dog, Roselle, who was with me in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, passed away last evening, Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 8:52 PM. I am sad, of course, because I will miss Roselle so very much, more than any of my other guide dogs. I write with joy because Roselle is in a better place, no longer feeling pain, while I get to have so many fond memories of her.
He goes on to tell you about his experience on 9-11 and the distressing decline and death of the dog who saved his life that day. As they say, read the whole thing.
And he is also selling a book about this dog here available in audio book format (although curiously, don’t seem to be available in Braille). You can get it through Amazon too, but the ones on his site have his autograph and the “pawtograph” of Roselle.
And if you are really moved, you can donate to the Roselle’s Dream Foundation:
The purposes of the foundation include educating people about blindness, and as donations permit we shall assist blind children and later blind adults in obtaining some of the technologies which will assist them in learning and working in the world.
Which I have said before is absolutely the best way to help the handicapped, because it allows them to become independent. To quote that earlier post:
Reagan once famously quoted the proverb that if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach him how to fish he’ll eat forever. I would mangle that phrase as follows: if you give a paraplegic man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you make the docks wheelchair accessible he will eat forever.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Yes, its sentimental dog story day at Patterico’s! 🙂
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 8/20/2011 @ 8:40 amTwo great posts Aaron…but…I wasn’t planning on having misty eyeballs with my breakfast and lunch today. 🙂
Blackburnsghost (2ffb0c) — 8/20/2011 @ 9:02 amSeriously both really nice stories.
Thank You
I’m a sucker for a dog story, and I especially liked the part about Roselle managing a 23 hour flight without going to the bathroom once. Made me think of Gerard Depardieu’s flight last week — dogs really are better than us.
Tina Trent (7f2406) — 8/20/2011 @ 9:32 amEvery dog has his or her day.
DohBiden (d54602) — 8/20/2011 @ 9:34 amI’m possibly the biggest sap in the world when it comes to labrador retrievers in general. And Roselle was an extra special one. Thanks for the post, Aaron.
brb. going to get a kleenex. (needed not just because of Roselle– but because the article also made me think of the five of them whose pictures are lined up along our bookshelf)
elissa (725ce9) — 8/20/2011 @ 12:09 pmLovely post, Aaron. Just this week we had to put our 14 year old black lab down. So much of our family history involved Gus, a gentle, sweet-tempered friend who lived the life of Riley. I can’t imagine how much more impacting the loss of Rosselle must have been.
The best thing about dogs: even if others might be grumpy and not express any happiness to see you, the pups will always excitedly wag their tails in happy greeting.
Dana (4eca6e) — 8/20/2011 @ 12:44 pmSo sorry, Dana. 14 years is a good long life for a Lab, tho. In that respect I’d say you and Gus were extra lucky to share that many great years together.
elissa (725ce9) — 8/20/2011 @ 12:56 pmThe best thing about dogs: even if others might be grumpy and not express any happiness to see you, the pups will always excitedly wag their tails in happy greeting.
Comment by Dana — 8/20/2011 @ 12:44 pm
Perfectly said.
And Dana, I am so sorry about your 14yr old. A week ago today, we had to say goodbye to our 15yr old chow border collie mix.
Thank you Aaron.
ppk_pixie (901c40) — 8/20/2011 @ 1:03 pmThank you, Aaron; my sympathy to all of you who’ve lost canine companions. Would that we are as good as our dogs think we are.
htom (412a17) — 8/20/2011 @ 6:58 pmAaron,
Thank you for your wonderful and kind words. Just to set the record straight Thunder Dog will be published in Braille by the National Library Service of the Library of Congress. I am a firm proponent of Braille, but that alternative to print doesn’t get addressed by the main stream world. Anyway, Braille copies of Thunder Dog will appear.
In addition to the normal eBook formats Thunder Dog is now available in the Blio format which does use an accessible reader available for free on most computers as well as the iPhone and other mobile devices.
I hope people do enjoy Thunder Dog and the memories of Roselle the book gives. We miss her, but she is in a better place.
By the way, Roselle is one of eight finalists for the American Humane Association hero dog of the year. People can vote for her to win. You may vote once a day from each email address you have. I ask every reader to help Roselle’s legacy continue by helping her win this award. You can vote at http://www.herodogawards.org/view-entries.html#view/359/220458.
Thanks.
Best,
Michael Hingson
Michael Hinngson (e02ec3) — 8/20/2011 @ 9:48 pmthunder thunder thunder thunder DOG!
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 8/20/2011 @ 9:50 pmOh geez I get all verklempt at dog stories with even the slightest amount of teh sadness. I avoided Hachi.
PC14 (4a4ed3) — 8/21/2011 @ 11:06 amThink of the amazing lives some lucky dogs get to lead, on account of human beings.
If humans didn’t exist then dogs would live nasty feral lives, like coyotes or wolves. Instead, some of them get to live in houses, eat amazing food they couldn’t get in the wild, be free of diseases and parasites, and explore a complex emotional world, frequently full of affection, with families and children and so forth.
Man, dogs have got it made! Where can I sign up?
d. in c. (6d8a47) — 8/21/2011 @ 6:08 pmAh, but you forget that he will also then bring a lawsuit requiring that the docks also have a wheelchair accessible toilet, which the courts will side with (regardless of whether or not he docks formerly had any toilets at all).
If there ARE any public toilets, an attempt to save massive amounts of money to just allow him access by making the dock supervisor’s personal toilet a universal, unisex handicapped access toilet will also be met with a lawsuit, charging that this singles out the handicapped (sorry, not folding to this PC sh**) as somehow, well, handicapped (the wheelchair didn’t give it away, don’t you know?). In the end, the dock will have to massively retrofit the existing toilet facilities to provide not only a toilet but a full private stall with sink, which will reduce the total number of stalls in the facility for each sex from five to two. This will have the net effect of massively increasing wait times for the stalls for the 99.9% of the people who don’t require such extremes, but, hey, anything to keep from “singling out” a handicapped person’s handicaps.
Think that last part is joking or too over-the-top? No, sorry, it’s not. There are a narrow range of buildings built shortly after the passage of the current Disabilities Act in which buildings attempted to resolve the massive space problems represented by having two full toilets-with-sinks-with-full-wheelchair-range-of-motion by locating a single handicapped, unisex facility between the two of them. In short order they were told to cease and desist or face further lawsuits. The already-built facilities got grandfathered in, but you won’t find any more such simple, elegant solutions to a reasonable problem any more… and those of you crossing your legs waiting, wondering why it is that there are only two stalls instead of four*, well, you can thank a handicapped person for that.
The problem here is the MADD problem. The March of Dimes problem — bureaucracies are never satisfied. Even private ones don’t just disband, their task achieved. They are always searching for some new #!$$%&^$%&^ BS to raise a stink over. This is true of the ADA, too, as it is with almost every other organization.
So remember that — write into the bylaws of any organization you ever have a hand in creating — define the goal, define the criteria for acking that goal achieved, and define the process for disbanding the organization once that goal has been achieved. Make it a non-alterable aspect of the organization, no amount of tap dancing will allow the organization to retain money, assets, or other worthwhile components of its existence.
Because bureaucracies are %^$%&^$% ZOMBIES. You can’t kill ’em, you can only put devices in their heads to cause their heads to explode at some point.
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* OK, three, with the centralized unisex design
Smock Puppet, Facepalm Expert (c9dcd8) — 8/21/2011 @ 9:52 pmGiven that it is 2011, not 1911, should that not be updated to “if you give a paraplegic man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you rebuild a paraplegic with Robocoptechnology, he will eat forever”?
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 8/22/2011 @ 6:29 pm