I read this story in my latest issue of "This Time", a newsletter published by our local chapter of H.O.M.E Inc. It brought tears to my eyes!!!

"ALL HEROES ARE NOT PEOPLE"

James Crane worked on the 101st floor of Tower #1 of the World Trade Center. He is blind so he has a golden retriever named Daisy. On Sept. 11th after the plane hit 2 stories below, James knew he was doomed, so he let Daisy go, out of an act of love. With tears in his eyes he watched as she darted away into the darkened hallway. Choking on the smoke and fumes from the jet fuel, James was just waiting to die. About 30 minutes later, Daisy came back into the room along with James' boss. Daisy led James and his boss and about 300 other people out of the doomed building. But she wasn't through yet! She knew others were trapped. Against James' wishes, Daisy runs back into the burning tower. On this run, she leads out 392 more people. Again Daisy runs back into the building. This time the building collapses. James hears this news and he falls to his knees in tears. A fireman appears and in his arms, is an injured but still alive, Daisy. "She led us right to 273 trapped people just before she got injured", the fireman reported. Daisy suffered acute smoke inhalation, severe burns on all four paws and a broken leg but she saved the lives of 967 people. Mayor Guiliani awarded Daisy the Canine Medal of Honor of New York. Daisy is the very first civilian canine to win this honor!

Doesn't this story make you want to give your dog a big hug??!!

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2002

Answers

It's a lovely story . . . . but the vast numbers of people saved raised my suspicions . . . . Why wouldn't we have heard about this before? I'm still checking, but I suspect it's a fabricated story.

I did find a story about a Michael Hingston and his yellow lab, Roselle, who lead him safely out of one of the towers. You can read it here: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/michaelhingson.htm

Okay, I found it -- it is indeed fiction. :-( See here: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/daisy.htm

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2002

Thanks for bursting my bubble, Joy :-)!!! No really...I do appeciate you checking on that...I should have! It's pretty bad when you can't trust a newsletter published by the World Emmaus Movement :-(!!! I just might write to Sister Lucy Poulin myself and let her know.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

Yeah, sorry, Marcia -- but I don't like these hoaxes being perpetuated. I am automatically suspicious of stories that are circulated on the 'Net. The real-life dog, Roselle, was hero enough for me.

I think you should write to them -- get THEM to check out such things before they write them up. Besides the Truth or Fiction site I quoted above, the snopes.com site is pretty good.

Just last night I got another "warning" from a friend who's rather new to the 'Net -- the one about the teddy bear file that you're supposed to remove (doing so screws up your computer). Fortunately, I got a retraction from her almost immediately saying she'd discovered it was a hoax. Can't wait until my mother gets online .. . . yikes!

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

I think the first think I ought to do is look up the word "gullible" in my dictionary :-)!!

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

Don't feel bad Marcia. I was suspicious when he "watched" his dog dart down the hallway.

Yea, it's like the story of Mel Gibson's face being all scared up. I had a fight with my son on that one. He believed it and it wasn't until Mel was in Readers Digest that he finally believed me.

I think the truely heroric dogs were the ones that kept tiredlessly looking for survivors after the towers where down. One trainer was reprimanded because his dog was dehydrated and rundown for overwork. I also read a story (In Readers Digest)where dogs where searching the dumps for any little piece of human flesh, so the families could have closure. I still don't understand how rings, wallets, and such could survive but the bodies be pulverized beyond finding.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002