Rescued by Ruby

Ruby had been in a shelter, adopted five times and returned five times. Now, this is not unusual, as certain dogs are unsuitable for life in the average pet home. Sadly, this is not recognised often enough by the shelters that house these dogs, and the unsuspecting families that adopt them are so disappointed that the love and commitment they devote to their newest family member is not reciprocated.

I have raised this issue many times in the past. Putting a highly intelligent working dog in a pet home can lead to boredom, which in turn can manifest itself in antisocial behaviour like destructiveness, disobedience and generally poor attitude. Unfortunately, just because we rescue an unwanted animal, there is no guarantee that the animal concerned will show any gratitude.

Patricia Inman was working with the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at the time. (RISPCA) and attempting to manage Ruby’s bad behaviour, hoping a suitable home would eventually be found. Ruby was an Australian Shepherd border collie mix that had been surrendered to the shelter as “unmanageable.” It has been reported that Ruby came within 2 hours of being euthanized.

An idea pair

Daniel O’Neil was a young man with a dream; already a state trooper, he wanted to join the specialist K9 search and rescue unit of the state police but had failed each time. With no dogs available, a pregnant wife and no money, Dan was encouraged by his wife Melissa to consider a shelter dog. Many of the dogs In the K9 unit were German Shepherd Dogs costing thousands of dollars, specially bred for the purpose and correctly raised with this career In mind.

By comparison Ruby was already eight months old, no stability in her early life, in fact from day one a canine calamity.

It was RISPCA investigator Joseph Warzycha who saw the potential in Ruby, and it was at his suggestion that Dan and Ruby become a team. Unfortunately, Joseph doesn’t appear In the movie, which appears to be a trifle strange as this is the man who was responsible for the adoption taking place. Without his specialist knowledge, none of this would have taken place.

In fairness, movie makers habitually leave central characters out when making a movie. An example of this is the 1974 film Zulu. It was a brilliant film except for the fact that they left out one of the main characters. George Smith, often referred to as Ammunition Smith courageously provided ammunition to the defenders. As an assistant chaplain, he was technically a civilian and a non-combatant, so he received no medals. As such, his contribution to the defence of Rorke’s Drift is largely unknown and, therefore, ignored.

I digress. So, returning to the story of Ruby, Dan persevered and discovered that the reason that Ruby was considered a total disaster was that she was bored with nothing to focus on, a fact recognised by Joseph Warzycha. As soon as her brain was stimulated, her behaviour changed as she excelled in training, finishing top of her class. In a long career, Ruby has been involved in a number of rescues and has been instrumental in putting two murderers behind bars.

In the movie, Ruby is played by two actors, dogs Bear and Shilo, who are rescue dogs themselves.

Following the incident, Ruby was nominated and actually won The American Humane Hero Dog Award in 2018.