An Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix named Ruby had already been returned to the shelter 4 times by the time she was 8 months old.

At that point, she was deemed “unadoptable” and simply too much for any family to handle. The shelter felt like they couldn’t in good conscience put another family through the adoption process with Ruby and she was scheduled to be euthanized.

Despite her uncooperative home behavior, a shelter worker named Pat Inman got an idea – and Ruby got a temporary reprieve.

Inman wanted to give the puppy one more chance to learn some discipline and sensed that the dog was keenly intelligent (if not even remotely well-behaved).

“She did not have an off switch,” Inman wrote in a Facebook message. “She was too much dog for most families.”

Inman contacted the Rhode Island State Police to see if they would be interested in training the wily pup for their K-9 unit. It would be like sending her to boot camp and she would either prove she could behave or not.

It turns out Inman had a good gut instinct – the rigors of K9 training are exactly what Ruby needed. And it just so happened that an officer named Dan O’Neil needed an “in” to the K9 unit as well.

O’Neil had always wanted to join the unit but didn’t have a canine partner to help him get his foot in the door. He was offered Ruby as a result and they each got their chance to see if they could pass muster in these important new roles.

Ruby didn’t necessarily get off to the best start with the O’Neil family – upon being introduced to her new home she immediately ran into the living room and pooped on the floor in front of his pregnant wife. But Officer O’Neil agreed to maintain his commitment as long as possible.

As you might imagine, it took A LOT of patience and hard work. But Ruby finally learned some discipline thanks to her new human partner.

Ruby and Officer O’Neil spent seven years on the K9 unit and Ruby was a real champ during the 10 missing person cases she was assigned to.

In a wild coincidence, one of those cases involved Pat Inman.

A teenage boy had gone missing from his home in Gloucester, RI and his mother told both officers assigned to the case that he liked to go walking in the woods. So they split up to search for him.

Ruby picked up the teen’s scent and after racing down a ravine with O’Neil struggling to keep up, she hovered over and licked the face of the injured and unconscious teen.

It turns out she found him just in time too – he was able to make a full recovery after his hospitalization.

When O’Neil went to see the teen’s mother to give her the good news of the rescue, he told her it had been the K9 unit that found him. Remembering her rescue all those years earlier she asked O’Neil if he had ever encountered a dog named Ruby.

The duo couldn’t believe that Ruby was the same “unadoptable” dog Inman had rescued!

It was meant to be – Pat Inman ended up rescuing the dog who would someday rescue her son!

The two were blown away by the story – as are we.

As for Ruby, it was all in a day’s work. Among her many rewards for her service was becoming a finalist for the American Human Hero Dog Awards sponsored by the Hallmark Channel in 2018.

Be sure to watch the video below to see an interview with Officer O’Neil about this amazing rescue.

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Source: TODAY via YouTube, Police Magazine, Hallmark Channel Hero Dog Awards, The Providence Journal via YouTube