Shelter Dog At Risk Of Being Euthanized Becomes A Police K9 & Saves A Boy’s Life

Ruby has gone through a lot of rough patches to get to where she is now.

A new Netflix movie called “Rescued by Ruby,” is based on her life story, and shows her incredible journey from shelter dog to hero police k9.

Ruby ended up at the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, where she was adopted and returned five different times due to her energetic and “hard-to-manage” behavior.

Patricia Inman, a volunteer at the shelter, helped train Ruby and made it her mission to find her the perfect forever home so that she wouldn’t be euthanized.

She finally found a home with Corporal Dan O’Neil, who was a Rhode Island State Trooper at the time and is now the department’s K-9 Unit Coordinator. He was in search of a dog to train for a spot in his department’s K9 Unit.

O’Neil continued to work with Ruby on her behavior for the next year before she went through a human remains detection class, which she passed. She then passed a search and rescue class and ended up becoming the first-ever shelter dog to get adopted and put into police work in the Rhode Island State Police.

Ruby quickly proved how great of a k-9 officer she is and was deemed a hero in 2017 after she helped locate a missing boy who had been missing for over 36 hours. Once she found the boy, she remained by his side with O’Neil until rescuers got there.

When O’Neil met the boy’s mom, he was shocked to learn that she was the shelter volunteer who had helped Ruby! Ruby ended up rescuing his rescuer. It was definitely fate!

“Even six years after not seeing her, Ruby was wagging her tail and jumping up on Pat, giving her kisses,” O’Neil told PEOPLE. “I told Pat, ‘Pat, this was Ruby’s way of saying thank you for giving her a chance.'”

Today, Ruby is still working in her 11th year as a trooper with the Rhode Island State Police. Despite her age, she can still run around for hours and absolutely loves her job.

Watch the portrayal of Ruby’s journey in her film “Rescued by Ruby” on Netflix. Two shelter dogs, Bear and Shiloh, play the role of Ruby. Bear and Shiloh are a bonded pair that were adopted from a shelter by the movie’s animal trainers.

“Our hope, our prayer honestly, is that people see the movie and they will go out, and they will adopt a shelter dog,” Louise DuArt, Rescued by Ruby’s executive producer, told PEOPLE.

Hear more of this incredible story in the video below: