Philly woman killed by train rescuing dog was Islamic art scholar

Wherever Michelle Rein went, Taz, her black Chihuahua, went, too.

Taz was trained to nudge her mistress and offer emotional support when bouts of disabling pain washed over her.

On Friday, at the Bryn Mawr train station, Rein reacted as one who considers a dog as family. Taz had become agitated and strayed onto the tracks, and Rein stepped off the platform.

Before she could cradle the dog and stand up, the train was on her, a witness said. Rein, 44, of Center City, a student of Islamic art and architecture, died instantly of massive injuries, police said.

Taz was thrown clear of the train and is recovering from a dislocated hip and fractured femur, said a spokesman for the Montgomery County SPCA, where the dog was taken. After treatment, Taz was adopted Sunday by a family member.

"To Michelle, her dog was like her child, and she did what any mother would do," Rein's cousin, Gary Rosen, said in a comment posted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. "Everyone is just stunned. It is hard to believe."

According to family and friends, Rein suffered from chronic regional pain syndrome, an autoimmune illness that incapacitates its victims.

"It made it very difficult for her to type and carry things," said Holly Pittman, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania's art history department, who was her mentor.

Despite her ailment, Rein did research, lectured, and traveled widely. Her specialties were Islamic art and women's traditions in Morocco, Pittman said.

"She was such a wonderful presence around the department," Pittman said.

Rein's most recent assignment, in the fall of 2008, was that of adjunct professor in the history department at Villanova University. She taught a course called Women in the Middle East, said university spokesman Jonathan Gust.

On Friday, Rein was returning with her dog and laptop from Villanova, where she had gone to do research, said her father, Irwin Rein.

Witnesses disagree on whether the dog was wearing a leash when it bolted onto the tracks. Sarah M. Brennan, a Radnor paralegal who was on the train, said minutes after the accident that she saw the dog in a bystander's arms with a leash and a green vest on.

Another eyewitness recalled seeing the vest but not the leash. SPCA officials said the dog was not wearing even the vest when they saw it Friday night.