Ruby

Ruby is a mixed-breed dog.  Her original owner dropped her off at an animal shelter when the pup was only seven months old.  After several attempts, she was deemed unadoptable and scheduled to be euthanized.  The minutes ticked away.  It was Ruby’s last day and she was within a couple hours of being put to sleep.

Ruby was about to die.

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Ruby is part border-collie and part Australian shepherd.  Both breeds are working dog known for their intelligence and laser-focus on their work.  The work they were bred for is herding livestock which requires lots of energy and quick thinking.

Intelligence, quick thinking, and energy are three of the traits teachers often see in kids who have trouble sitting still in school.  Such kids are frequently diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).  Such students can drive their teachers crazy if the educators cannot find something to interest them and help them focus and concentrate on their work.

That pretty well describes Ruby.  People would drop by the shelter where she lived and fall in love with the cute, playful pup.  They would adopt her and take her home.  Once there, the dog would absolutely wear out her welcome.  The new family would get tired of playing with her and even more tired of trying to stop her from bouncing around and chewing on things.  In a very short time Ruby’s adoptive family would have all they could handle of the feisty pup and take her back to the shelter.

Within about a month after her arrival, Ruby was adopted and returned five times.  Yes, five times in only a month. 

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Patricia Crowley Inman is a dog trainer who volunteers some of her time at the RISPCA (Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).  There she tries to train the bad habits out of dogs whose negative behaviors make them difficult to find homes for.

Crowley worked with Ruby.  She said of the pup, “She jumped and bit her leash. She wouldn’t sit or lie down. She just never stopped moving. She was special, and she needed a special person.”  Patricia did make progress but, as she said, she knew that it would take a special, very patient owner to permanently adopt Ruby.  More than that, they would have to give the pup a job to keep her busy enough to channel her energy in a positive direction.

People with those talents are few, and many of those few already have pets, so Ruby was quickly running out of chances. 

Even though animal shelters do a good thing by finding homes for animals, their space is much more limited than the number of pets that need a new home.  Sadly, they can only keep an individual animal for a limited time before they need to make room for other, more adoptable, ones.  Although it is a last resort, shelters find themselves making the tough decision to put unadoptable animals to sleep.

With nobody coming along who could offer Ruby the kind of home she needed, the pup was scheduled to be euthanized.  Time was quickly ticking away for the poor dog.

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Joseph Warzycha was an investigator for the RISPCA.  He agreed with Patricia Crowley about Ruby’s potential and special needs.  Still, time was running down for Ruby.  What could he do to save the troubled pooch?

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Matt Zarella was a trooper with the Rhode Island State Police.  He had a mission to establish a K9 (canine) corps of rescue dogs for the RISP, to help search out missing people or locate victims of serious crimes.  Unfortunately Rhode Island didn’t seem as sold on the idea as Matt was. 

Zarrella believed in his idea but couldn’t afford to buy a specially bred and trained rescue dog.  So he adopted a Saint Bernard and enrolled himself and the dog in a training program.

The State Police eventually saw the potential.  They funded Zarrella to build his K9 force, but didn’t give him the funding he thought he needed, so he built the force using donated and adopted shelter dogs.

Don’t get ahead of me now.

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Dan O’Neil had a problem. 

O’Neil was a trouper with the Rhode Island State Police.  He heard about Zarrella’s K9 force and felt that it would be a good fit for him.  However, as a youngster, O’Neil had been diagnosed with dyslexia and hyperactivity.  The disorders made it difficult for him to concentrate on reading and studying.  He kept trying to join, but struggled with the preparing and testing.  He applied and was rejected seven times.

Now it gets a little confusing but hang on; it’s worth it.

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Joseph Warzycha was aware of Matt Zarella’s K9 program.  With Ruby’s time fading away, he called Zarella and suggested he evaluate Ruby for police work.

I’m not sure how, or if, Zarella made the connection between O’Neil’s and Ruby’s behavioral disorders, but he contacted the frequent applicant to his K9 corps and O’Neil agreed to give Ruby a try.

O’Neil’s familiarity with his own behavioral struggles may have given him an advantage, but working with Ruby still wasn’t easy.  He stuck with it however and the trooper/dog team qualified. 

They were part of the K9 corps!

The team had several interesting adventures with the corps.  One of them, however, is almost unbelievable.  In fact, if I saw it in a movie I’d think some over enthusiastic writer had tested the limits of believability.

In fact, it would be impossible to believe…if I didn’t know it is true.

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In 2017 Ruby and Dan were part of a rescue mission looking for a teenager who had disappeared while on a hike in the woods.  He had been missing for 36 hours and chances of finding him alive were growing dim.

The search wore on and hope was dimming.  Then Trooper O’Neil heard Ruby barking.  The insistent dog seemed to be saying, “Come here NOW!”

Dan wasn’t far away and located his dog at the bottom of a ravine with the missing youth, who was unconscious and suffering from injuries and exposure.  He couldn’t have lasted much longer but, thanks to Dan and Ruby, he would survive to go home.

While the boy was rushed to the hospital, Trooper O’Neil happily made the drive to tell the boy’s mother.  You can imagine his amazement when the teen’s mother turned out to be…are you ready for this… Patricia Crowley Inman, the volunteer trainer who worked with Ruby and believed in her right down to the last chance for her to get adopted…by Trooper O’Neil.

Crazy, huh?

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Partly because of that incredible rescue, Ruby was nominated for the Humane Society’s Search and Rescue Hero Dog of 2018.  She won!

Film maker Mary Healey Jamiel was working on a documentary, “Searchdog,” about Zarrella’s efforts to start and build the K9 corps.  Ruby was one of the stars of that documentary.

All this got the attention of Netflix, the online streaming service.  Netflix produced a movie, “Rescued by Ruby,” a fictionalized account of O’Neil and Ruby’s partnership.

Granted, Netflix made some changes to the story to streamline it and make it easier to watch.  It’s a pretty good show.  If Ruby’s story sounds interesting to you, give it a watch.

Incidentally, in making the movie, Ruby had to be played by a younger dog, as she is about 13 years old now.  She was played by a dog named Bear, who is a rescue dog like Ruby.  When the talent scouts located Bear, he was living in a shelter with another, similar dog named Shiloh.  The two were so inseparable that both dogs were adopted and Shiloh was given the job of stunt double for Bear.

So the rescued rescue dog helped rescue two other dogs.  Got that?

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Trooper Zarrella has since retired as a sergeant and now operates American Patriot K9 Training.  Cpl. Dan O’Neil took over Zarella’s K9 corps and is now in charge of K9 operations for 17 handlers and 18 dogs. He’s also the handler for two dogs: Ruby, who is still working, and Koda, Ruby’s protégé.

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