‘Sometimes I wonder if the animal kingdom has one up on us humans.’

Millicent Collinsworth still cannot muster the courage to take a bus ride. The blind woman says she shudders when she hears loud noises and feels “incredibly vulnerable” in public places.

But the memories of that hot afternoon when she was trampled in an RTD bus melee and was led home, bloodied and bruised, by her guide dog are balanced, she says, by an outpouring of sympathy once her story became known.

“It will take me a lifetime to thank everyone,” Collinsworth, 40, said, recalling the hundreds of letters, phone calls, flowers, offers of help--including work as an actress--she received after the fracas. “In the long run this has had at least one lovely side.”

Last June, Collinsworth was returning to her Hollywood home from Westwood in a crowded RTD bus when a man suddenly began flailing his arms and pushing toward the front of the bus. In the commotion she was hit in the face, splitting open her lip, and was thrown to the floor. Frightened and confused, she managed to stumble out of the bus with her guide dog, Eeyore.

It was Eeyore and Eeyore alone who helped her that day; apparently no one else on the bus noticed her plight, and passers-by ignored her.

During the 15-block walk home during rush hour, she clung to Eeyore’s leash, weeping, mistaking the blood running down her face for tears. Only after she got home and was found by a neighbor did she get human help.

On Monday, the black Labrador retriever received accolades as the “Hero Dog” of the year from the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Dog of the Year

He, too, had been trampled in the bus fracas. His leash became tangled around his neck, and he gasped and choked while leading his mistress home down a path they had never passed before.

“To this day all I know is that it was only the dog’s intelligence that got me home,” Collinsworth said during award ceremonies for the dog. “It was Eeyore’s courage and loyalty that helped me when no one else would. Sometimes I wonder if the animal kingdom has one up on us humans.”

But after Collinsworth’s neighbor called The Times and her story was picked up by media throughout the country, she was deluged by a “surprising outpouring of care.” Strangers offered to run errands and drive for her. She still

corresponds with some of them.

An actress who lost her sight in an accident about 10 years ago, Collinsworth even played herself in an episode recounting the bus scuffle for the CBS police series “Houston Knights.”

She has moved to a San Dimas condominium with her husband of five

months, Gary Williams, to whom she was engaged at the time of the incident. She said she has recently been approached by two production companies interested in her life story, but nothing firm has emerged. While she continues to pursue her acting career, Collinsworth has become involved in the Screen Actors Guild committee for disabled actors.

Collinsworth has filed a claim against the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which refuses to discuss the incident because of “pending litigation.”

In an interview just before Eeyore’s ceremony, she said that even the belated help was more than she would have expected.

“It never occurred to me anyone would help,” she said of her frightening walk home. “I was hysterical and disoriented. . . . When a person is disabled, dealing with insensitivity is a daily hurdle.”