The heartwarming true story behind the Netflix dog movie

Netflix is ​​trying to tug at the hearts of dog lovers everywhere Saved by Ruby.

In the movie streaming now, The Lightning Star Grant Gustin plays Dan, a state police officer who continues to apply unsuccessfully to join the state police K-9 team. Until he meets a shelter puppy named Ruby.

All very touching stuff for fans of man’s best friend. But what sets Saved by Ruby Aside from movies like Marley and I, the purpose of a dog and A Dog’s Journey (amazingly different movies) is based on a true story involving the events in Rhode Island in 2011.

And this true story takes a dramatic turn, including a coincidence that viewers would find utterly unbelievable if someone wrote the screenplay (just so you know, there are spoilers for the film).

Netflix recently screened the film for the real people whose lives it was based on, so we also know how they feel about how they were portrayed. and news week has all the details below.

The real story behind it Saved by Ruby

The real Ruby was an Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix with behavior problems. First dropped off at the shelter when she was four months old, she was adopted by five different families only to bring her back to the shelter because of her issues.

As told by volunteer at the shelter, Patricia Inman Miami Herald: “She jumped and bit her leash. She didn’t want to sit or lie down. She just never stopped moving. She was special and she needed someone special.”

That “special person” turned out to be State Trooper Daniel O’Neil. He saw Ruby’s behavioral problems as a strength: it meant the dog had a lot of energy.

He was also taken with the dog’s intelligence and decided to train her to be a police search and rescue dog. He could identify with her as well, as he struggled with hyperactivity himself. “We both kind of know where the other is from,” he told the Miami Herald.

The real O’Neil told animal information and news website Daily Paws: “She was an absolute wreck. She did not have a stable home for the first eight months of her life and was in dire need of love and stability.”

O’Neil had been trying to join the K-9 unit since 2004, but didn’t join Ruby until 2011. The couple then spent years learning all the skills a police dog needs — tracking and tracing, tracking down evidence (including human remains). ) and land and water search and rescue.

In 2017, the story took its dramatic turn.

In October of the same year, a teenager went missing after a hike. A human search party could not find him, and there were concerns that he was seriously ill or even dead.

However, after 36 hours, Ruby found him unconscious after falling into a ravine. After they found the boy (who has since recovered), O’Neil went to tell his mother – only to find out it was Inman, the shelter volunteer, who had convinced him to give the dog a one give chance.

“I was so grateful. I was beside myself and overwhelmed,” she said. “So many things had to fit together for this to happen the way it did. The universe works in mysterious ways.”

This amazing coincidence led to the story making headlines nationally and led to Ruby winning the 2018 American Humane Hero Dog Award for Search and Rescue. In a video accompanying the award, O’Neil said, “If you give a shelter dog a second by chance, you could potentially change the world; she changed the world for this young man.”

Saved by Ruby reflects this message about the power of rescue dogs by casting a dog named Bear in the title role. He, too, is a shelter dog who was saved from being euthanized by the film’s dog trainers. They also adopted Shiloh, another dog that Bear had a strong bond with.

In the real world, O’Neil is now in charge of the Rhode Island State Police’s K-9 operations, overseeing 18 handlers and 19 dogs. He still works with Ruby and a new dog named Koda.

Speak with The Diary of ProvidenceO’Neil said that actor Scott Wolf made such a convincing impression of his boss in the unit that it “felt at times watching the film at home [Matt] Zarrella was in the room giving him orders again.”

However, it was with Zarrella’s character that the film made its biggest change from the real story. The film features Ruby as the first shelter dog adopted by the force, when in reality Zarrella had started the unit with shelter dogs before the police agreed to pay for bred police dogs.

Saved by Ruby is now streaming on Netflix.