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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Awesome article in honor of National Guide dog month. </span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Enjoy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Tina <o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>5 Hero Guide Dogs Who Saved Their Human Companions’ Lives</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>by Laura Goldman</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>September 16, 2015</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/5-hero-guide-dogs-who-saved-their-human-companions-lives.html">http://www.care2.com/causes/5-hero-guide-dogs-who-saved-their-human-companions-lives.html</a></span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>September is National Guide Dog Month, a time to celebrate and raise awareness of the work of these special dogs.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Seeing-eye dogs may have existed as far back as the first century A.D., according to the </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>International Guide Dog Federation. In the ruins of the ancient Roman town of Heculaneum, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., a mural was discovered that depicts a dog leading a man.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Twenty centuries later, Guiding Eyes for the Blind estimates that there are now approximately 10,000 guide dogs working in the United States.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>In honor of National Guide Dog Month, here are five seeing-eye dogs that went above and beyond the line of duty by heroically saving the lives of their blind human companions.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Salty and Roselle</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>When the North Tower of the World Trade Center was struck by the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11, two seeing-eye dogs led their blind owners safely out of the building.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Michael Hingson was working on the 78th floor when the plane struck 14 stories above him. Although his 3-year-old seeing-eye dog, Roselle, was terrified of loud noises, the yellow lab immediately sprang into action, leading Hingson to the stairwell and down 78 flights of stairs.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“I was the pilot and she was the navigator,” Hingson told the </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Los Angeles Daily News on the 14th anniversary of the attacks.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>A book Hingson wrote about the experience, Thunder Dog, was a bestseller. Roselle, who retired in 2007, died in 2011 of immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, a disease Hingson believes was triggered by the chemicals, debris and smoke she inhaled on 9/11.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Omar Rivera was also working in the North Tower when the plane struck. His seeing-eye dog, Salty, began running back and forth in the hallway outside Rivera’s cubicle on the 71st floor.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“I think he was trying to search out what was going on — and then he just came back to me and sat down next to me, very anxious,” Rivera told TODAY.com.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“The thing I remember most about him that day was the way he tried to communicate with me to tell me, ‘This is urgent. We need to act on this immediately.’”</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>As they slowly descended the increasingly crowded stairwell, Rivera let go of Salty’s harness so the dog could escape, but the yellow lab refused to leave his side. After an hour and 15 minutes, they finally made it to the ground floor. They were only a few blocks away when the tower collapsed.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Salty retired in 2007. He “played obsessively with tennis balls and exuded relentless joy” until he died at the age of 13 the following year, TODAY.com reports.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Yolanda</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Maria Colon, who is blind, awoke to the smell of smoke in her Philadelphia house last month.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“I said, ‘Oh my God… I can’t breathe,’” she told NBC 10.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>She shouted, “Danger!” to her seeing-eye dog, Yolanda.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>The golden retriever called 911.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“I hear the phone — tke, tke, tke. And she’s growling. And I said, ‘Oh my lord, she called the police,’” Colon said.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>This was actually the second time Yolanda used the specially equipped phone to summon emergency services. She did the same thing last year when Colon fell and lost consciousness.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Firefighters quickly arrived and put out the blaze. Both Colon and Yolanda were treated for smoke inhalation.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“I’m her Mommy, and she loves me too much,” Colon said.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Figo</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>As Audrey Stone crossed a Brewster, N.Y., street with her seeing-eye dog, Figo, on a morning in June, the driver of a mini-bus didn’t see them.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>But Figo sure saw the mini-bus. He leaped in front of Stone, taking the brunt of the hit.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“The dog did something really heroic,” John Del Gardo, Brewster’s police chief, told ABC News.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“He sort of lunged at the bus. It injured his leg and paw, and the woman received multiple injuries. When EMS came, he didn’t want to leave her side.”</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Both Stone and Figo were hospitalized for their injuries, but are expected to fully recover. A generous, anonymous benefactor covered the cost of Figo’s veterinary care.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Figo “deserves the purple heart,” Stone told the Journal News.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Orlando</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Cecil Williams, who is blind, was walking too close to the edge of a Harlem subway platform in December 2013.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Witnesses told CBS New York that Williams’ seeing-eye dog, a 10-year-old black lab named Orlando, kept barking and trying to lead him farther away.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Williams, however, ended up falling onto the subway tracks. Orlando jumped down and sat beside him, licking his face.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>When a train approached, witnesses screamed for it to stop, but it was too late. Several cars ran over Williams and Orlando. Amazingly, both of them survived.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Since Orlando was about to retire, Williams was afraid he’d have to give up his hero for a new seeing-eye dog, because he couldn’t afford to care for two dogs. But thanks to donations, Orlando will live out his retirement with the man whose life he helped save.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>“The spirit of giving, of Christmas, and all of that — it exists here,” a tearful Williams told </span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>CBS News.</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:13.0pt'><span style='color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.greenpathtowellness.com/">http://www.greenpathtowellness.com/</a><br>Author of Dear Suzie, Rivers Of Light and Annie's Journal<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>-- <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>