Ruby’s story could resonate with most of us, for she went from zero to hero.
This Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix was two hours away from being put down. It was a rough start for Ruby. She was a shelter dog who just didn’t fit any family who tried to adopt her.
She’d been in and out of the animal shelter five times.
The reason? Unmanageable behavior. But someone had more faith in Ruby than the families who gave her up. Rhode Island SPCA volunteer and dog trainer Patricia Inman saved Ruby, took her in, and knew there was something special about her.
Patricia describes Ruby as a “handful” and a “dynamite.”
She knew that dogs like Ruby need to be constantly moving or have an outlet for all that energy. Coincidentally, the Rhode Island K-9 Unit needed one more dog, and one of their officers, Daniel O’Neil, had always dreamed of having a K-9 partner.
It seemed like the stars were aligning for them.
Daniel admitted that it was challenging training Ruby. K-9 dogs are usually born and bred to be one, while Ruby had to be trained from the ground up. He admitted that her being a shelter dog was a stigma, but she showed them that she got it.
She graduated at the top of her class. Her hard work paid off as Ruby showed that she was capable of the job.
Together, they solved 10 missing person cases, and three of those were found alive. But nothing was more remarkable than one heroic mission.
Seven years after Ruby was saved from being put down, Daniel received a missing person report.
Like always, he went to the person who asked for help – a mother who found her son missing when she checked his bedroom. Daniel and Ruby went to the area where the mother thought her son might be.
When they reached the woods, Ruby just stormed off.
“I see Ruby ahead of me, and all of a sudden, she just puts her head up. I’m running after, I’m calling her, (but) she won’t come back. We turned the corner, there were two black boots on the ground, and then she is licking this young boy’s face,” Daniel recalled their experience that day.
They called for backup, yet the team couldn’t locate them.
He told Ruby to keep on barking, and that’s when they tracked them down. They rushed the boy to the hospital, and thanks to our girl Ruby, he was safe. But the story didn’t end there.
They went back to the mother to tell her the good news.
Daniel told her that his dog, Ruby, found her son. The mother felt a jolt hearing Ruby’s name and asked for more information about the dog. Could you guess who the mother is?
It was Patricia, Ruby’s trainer – the woman who did not give up on her.
It turns out some of us just really need second chances and someone to believe in us. For Ruby, it was both Patricia and Daniel.
Watch the video below for the full story.
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