What if you took Lassie (1954-1973) and made the famous collie into a K-9 police dog for the Rhode Island State Police? You would have the Netflix film Rescued by Ruby (2022), which is one of two movies of which I am aware that features that state’s law enforcement officers. The other is Me, Myself & Irene (2000), and that is a vastly different production. If for no other reason, Rescued by Ruby is a dog flick, which can sometimes be a little dull. The title also leaves a little to be desired. My love for St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, means that I do not want to be critical of such stories. At the same time, the film asks the question you often see on bumper stickers of dedicated pet owners: who rescued whom? Perhaps by reading this review, you can rescue some time from your day.

Rhode Island State Trooper Daniel O’Neil (Grant Gustin) begins Rescued by Ruby with a goal he has pursued for years: joining the state police K-9 search-and-rescue unit. Daniel is energetic, persistent, and dyslexic, but K-9 commander Matt Zarrella (Scott Wolf) repeatedly rejects him because the job requires calm focus and the department cannot afford another expensive trained German shepherd. With his latest opportunity slipping away, Daniel learns from veteran Seamus Brady (Tom McBeath) that the dog does not technically have to be a German shepherd. It simply needs the right combination of size, intelligence, agility, curiosity, and drive. Daniel therefore visits a local animal shelter, where worker Pat Inman (Camille Sullivan) introduces him to Ruby, a hyperactive border collie and Australian shepherd mix who has been adopted and returned repeatedly. Ruby is intelligent but nearly impossible to control, and she is running out of chances before she will be euthanized. Catholic teaching does not give animals the same inviolable right to life as human beings, but it does require us to treat them with kindness and avoid causing needless suffering. In Ruby’s case, Daniel believes killing her would be an unnecessary end for a dog with so much potential, but I digress. Daniel sees something in her that others do not and adopts her shortly before she is scheduled to be euthanized. His wife, Melissa O’Neil (Kaylah Zander), is supportive but understandably concerned when Ruby immediately begins creating chaos at home. Daniel has only a short time to prepare her for the K-9 tryouts, so he throws himself into training. Ruby initially ignores commands, chases animals, destroys property, and generally behaves like a dog determined to test whether Daniel’s optimism has limits. Pat offers advice, while Daniel gradually realizes that force and frustration will not work. He must understand Ruby, earn her trust, and channel the same restless energy that made everyone else give up on her. The pair improve enough to attend the K-9 trials, where Ruby’s unconventional style causes problems. Daniel believes his hopes of becoming a K-9 officer are finished, but Melissa suggests that he continue training. The extra time Daniel and Ruby spend practicing pays off, and they are allowed to retake the test. In their second attempt, Daniel and Ruby make the unit, although they still have plenty to prove. Their first assignments reveal both Ruby’s talent and Daniel’s tendency to doubt her. During one investigation, Ruby indicates that she has detected something beneath a concrete-covered area, but Daniel dismisses her signal. Another tip later leads police to a body buried there, and Matt reprimands Daniel for failing to trust his partner. The lesson is painful because Daniel has spent so much time asking other people to believe in him and Ruby, only to discover that he must learn to extend that same confidence to her himself. His opportunity arrives when a teenage boy disappears after going hiking. Matt calls Daniel to join the search, but Ruby has run away after Daniel, frustrated by another setback, lashes out at her. Daniel desperately searches for her and eventually finds her, apologizing and restoring their partnership. They join the effort to locate the missing boy, whose trail leads into a large wooded area. Other search teams struggle to find anything, but Ruby picks up the scent and pulls Daniel deeper into the forest. This time, he trusts her instincts. Ruby eventually leads him to the injured boy, who has fallen down a steep embankment and cannot escape. Daniel reaches him and calls for help, and the boy is eventually rescued. Only afterward does Daniel discover the extraordinary connection behind the case. The missing boy is the son of Pat, the shelter worker who fought to keep Ruby alive when others had given up on her. Pat is overwhelmed when she realizes that the dog she saved has now saved her son. Daniel gives Ruby the credit, while Seamus observes that there seems to be a wink from above in the way everything has come together. This Catholic will not argue with that sentiment. Matt agrees that Daniel and Ruby have proved themselves and promotes them to full-status members of the K-9 unit. Daniel also learns that Seamus had been quietly helping him because Matt had been rooting for him all along. The film closes by explaining that the story is based on the real Daniel O’Neil and Ruby, who served together for years and received recognition for their search-and-rescue work.

Rescued by Ruby therefore answers the question in its title twice over. Daniel rescues Ruby from a shelter when she has almost run out of chances, and Ruby rescues Pat’s son when he has almost run out of time. Along the way, she also rescues something in Daniel by teaching him that persistence alone is not enough. Sometimes the person, or dog, beside you needs the same faith you have spent years asking everyone else to place in you. The reason I have some issues as a Catholic contemplating that question is that it essentially ignores God’s role in these events. Most might dismiss God playing a part unless some kind of miracle happens. In other words, unless the hand of God reaches down and lifts Pat’s son out of that ravine, we tend to think that the Almighty had nothing to do with daily events. There is, of course, another way of looking at such matters. As a practicing Christian, I believe in divine providence. That does not mean that God positively wills every circumstance we encounter or that human beings lack free will. God can permit circumstances He does not desire in themselves while still working through them, and His knowledge of our choices does not force us to make them. How we respond to any situation is where our freedom becomes especially important. We have a choice in how we react to circumstances. There are those who, for example, see the ills of society and choose to keep to themselves. Then there are those like Daniel, who seek to join the Rhode Island State Police K-9 search-and-rescue unit and place their abilities at the service of others. The latter choice is more in line with the Christian call to love our neighbor. Daniel still has to choose it, train for it, fail at it, and persevere. Providence does not eliminate any of those things. Instead, the film provides a nice example of how a series of ordinary human choices can come together in an extraordinary way. In our increasingly atheistic society, perhaps doing the right thing can seem countercultural enough without requiring a miracle.

You will also need no miracle to get through Rescued by Ruby. I have no objections to it, even if the material does make it a little predictable. Still, the material is about as inoffensive as it comes.