National Rescue Dog Day is May 20 — and in honor of the special occasion, the husband-and-wife team of SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, co-founders of the Godwinks brands and based in Massachusetts, shared an engaging story of personal hope and a dog’s big heart with Fox News Digital.

It’s among the stories included in a forthcoming book the couple are writing.

“We all need more light. We need more positivity. We need family and faith, hope and strength — that’s what these stories are all about,” the couple told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. 

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They also said about the story at hand, “We can see why this one was destined to be a favorite family movie on Netflix — it begins with two main characters with their backs to the wall and ends with hope.”

SQuire Rushnell is the New York Times-bestselling author of 12 Godwinks books, six of them co-authored by the pair. 

The couple are executive producers of the popular Hallmark “Godwink” movie series, and their first film for Netflix, “Rescued by Ruby,” premiered as the network’s No. 1 family movie worldwide — recently ranking as the top “dog movie” of all time on Netflix.

Here, by special arrangement, is the story of a law enforcement officer and an incorrigible dog — or so everyone thought.

Last-chance pair

Rhode Island Trooper Dan O’Neil, struggling since childhood with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was facing his last chance to get into the canine unit after he was rejected for seven years in a row.

The dog was playfully romping through the shelter yard, oblivious to her fate.

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At the same time, a rambunctious rescue dog named Ruby — returned by seven different adoptive families and labeled “unmanageable,” as well as having “legal liability” written into her record because of issues with nipping — was playfully romping through the shelter yard, oblivious to her fate. 

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In just two hours, she would be euthanized.

Pat Inman, a trainer at the Providence Animal Shelter, had been desperate to find Ruby a home before the clock ran out. She had exhausted appeals to her boss to give her 24 more hours. 

The rambunctious rescue dog named Ruby was returned by seven different adoptive families and labeled “unmanageable,” as well as having “legal liability” written into her record because of issues with nipping. (Dan O’Neill)

She’d also pleaded with her husband to let her bring the dog home. 

But he put his foot down. “No more stray animals, Pat,” he told her.

Inman felt heartsick. She’d grown to love Ruby.

“We are all looking for hope.”

Then, as these things tend to happen with divine alignment in life, the first “Godwink” unfolded at the 11th hour.

“Godwink means an event that seems like a coincidence, but you know it comes from a divine origin,” Rushnell and DuArt previously told Fox News Digital. “We are all looking for hope, and we all have doubts … that someone is paying attention to us.”

‘Could she be a K-9?’

State Trooper O’Neil walked through the door of the animal shelter, asking if they had any German shepherds, knowing the breed to be curious and energetic. 

Inman said no but introduced him to Ruby, a smart Australian shepherd/border collie pup.

The trooper and Ruby locked eyes. A secret communication was taking place.

Ruby was soon leaving the shelter straining the leash of Officer Dan, as he was known, as the shelter worker held her breath. (Dan O’Neil/RISP)

“Do you think she could be a K-9 dog?” asked O’Neil. 

“She could be anything,” replied Inman, feeling a glimmer of hope for the first time.

Minutes later, Ruby was leaving the shelter straining the leash of Officer Dan, as he was known, as Inman held her breath and attempted to stifle tears of joy.

“She hasn’t had a stable home for her first eight months of life and is in desperate need of love and stability.”

But for anyone who thought the happy ending had just arrived and that everything would be a piece of cake — think again. 

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The next six months were grueling for Officer Dan. Ruby, it appeared, was incorrigible.

“She’s an absolute wreck,” O’Neil told his wife, Melissa. “She hasn’t had a stable home for her first eight months of life and is in desperate need of love and stability.”

Melissa O’Neil, steady as a rock, was a constant source of encouragement. And prayer.

Officer Dan O’Neil and Ruby — who rose to become top dog in the Rhode Island State Police K-9 Unit. (Chris Roslan)

One day, the penny dropped for Ruby. She apparently decided that being a search and rescue dog was a job she liked. Moreover, she now had purpose. 

She received her State Police badge — and from that moment on, Ruby rose to be top dog in the Rhode Island State Police K-9 Unit.

As Pat Inman said earlier, “She can do anything.”

‘We hear Ruby barking’

Fast-forward several years. It was a cold October in Providence. The nights were freezing. 

A boy became lost in the dense woods near his home for 48 hours. 

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Local police searches were unsuccessful.

Running and trying to keep up, Officer Dan found Ruby at the bottom of a ravine. 

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It was nightfall when Officer Dan and Ruby were called to join the other K-9 partners and commence their search. Instantly, Ruby bolted into the darkness. 

Officer Dan, running and trying to keep up, found Ruby at the bottom of a ravine. 

She was curled up, trying to warm a boy with severe lacerations to the forehead and a faint pulse.

Ruby licked the boy’s face to open his breathing passages, filled with blood, as Officer Dan radioed the other first responders. He gave them GPS coordinates. 

Ruby, former shelter dog rejected by multiple families, is shown wearing a badge that reads, “Ruby: Rhode Island State Police K-9.” (Chris Roslan)

But soon they radioed that the coordinates were not working because they were in a ravine. So Officer Dan commanded Ruby to bark. 

A voice crackled from the radio, “We hear Ruby. Keep her barking!”

Before long, the boy was placed on a stretcher and rushed back to a waiting ambulance.

Their boy appeared to be stabilized and was en route to the hospital.

Ruby settled into her spot in Officer Dan’s police vehicle, and in the dim light of his truck’s headlights, the officer greeted the parents who came out to thank him.

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He advised them that their boy appeared to be stabilized and was en route to the hospital.

Through tears of gratitude, the mother earnestly thanked Officer Dan. 

Then, she asked, “Officer, have you ever heard of a dog named Ruby?”

Officer Dan paused and said, “Ma’am, Ruby’s my partner. She found your boy.”

Pat Inman together with Ruby, the former shelter dog who changed the lives of multiple people once she found her God-given purpose.   (Dan O’Neil)

The mother cried again and said, “I’m Pat Inman. I worked at the shelter and advocated for Ruby — but I never knew what happened after that.”

Officer Dan squinted to see her face in the faint light and finally recognized her.

“Oh my gosh, yes. That means the dog you saved just saved your son!”

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Ruby, meanwhile, was jumping up and down in the truck. She had caught the scent of her first love — Pat — from years before. The pair had a joyous reunion. 

Ruby’s ripple effect

In March 2022, the Netflix “Godwink” movie based on this story, “Rescued by Ruby,” premiered as the No. 1 family film in the world. By its first anniversary, the movie reached over 100 million viewers.

Sgt. Dan O’Neil, now the head of RISP K-9 Operations, reported that the number of young recruits who say they’ve been inspired to enlist in police academies because of “Rescued by Ruby” is extraordinary.

“Rescued by Ruby,” a Netflix film, premiered as the network’s No. 1 family movie worldwide — grabbing over 100 million viewers in its first 365 days. It recently ranked as the top “dog movie” of all time on Netflix. (Netflix)

After the movie’s release, Ruby loved the celebrity attention and was honored in many ways. She won an American Humane Hero Dog for Search & Rescue — and weeks after the film premiered, she and Sgt. Dan were honored at Fenway Park for the Opening Day of Baseball 2022.

“She continued to work daily as my K-9 State Police partner until the very day she graduated to dog heaven at 11.5 years old,” said Sgt. Dan. 

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“She showed us that we each can achieve great things no matter where we started out in life.”

Ruby’s story was first told nationally in SQuire Rushnell & Louise DuArt’s book “Dogwinks: True Stories of Dogs and the Blessings They Bring.” 

The book led to the Netflix film, “Rescued by Ruby.”

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DuArt was the one who advocated for Ruby to be played by another rescue dog. 

The trainers were hesitant. That was a tall order. 

Actor Grant Gustin, far right, as Sgt. Dan, along with Bear as Ruby. SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, executive producers of the film, are at left.  (SQuire Rushnell)

But, through more divine alignment, they found Bear — who, just like Ruby had been, was in a shelter and scheduled for euthanasia. 

Bear became the star of the movie along with Grant Gustin, who played Trooper Dan.

Anyone can learn more about the Godwinks projects at www.godwinks.com. 

Maureen Mackey of Fox News Digital, as well as Frank Miles, contributed reporting. 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island State Police conducted a series of arrests over the weekend, booking multiple individuals on various charges ranging from embezzlement to driving under the influence.

On Saturday, May 18, at 9:25 a.m., Troopers took David Williams, 39, of Cranston, into custody during a traffic stop on Route 95.

Williams faced charges including obstructing an officer, embezzlement, a bench warrant for failing to appear in court, and driving with a suspended license.

After processing at State Police Headquarters, he was handed over to the Cranston Police Department.

Later that day, at 4:30 p.m., Jennifer Irizarry, 39, of Providence, was arrested for possession of over 10 grams of cocaine.

Irizarry’s arrest, also the result of a traffic stop, led to her being processed, arraigned, and transferred to the Adult Correctional Institution Women’s Intake Center.

At 5:36 p.m., Jose Torres, 52, also of Providence, was apprehended for driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content (BAC) significantly above the legal limit.

Torres was released after his arraignment, with a court date pending at the Sixth Division District Court.

The arrests continued into the night when David Chavez, 20, of Warwick, was stopped on Route 6 East at 11:43 p.m. and arrested for driving under the influence with a BAC just over the .15 threshold.

Chavez was held overnight at the Lincoln Woods Barracks.

The following morning, Sunday, May 19, at 2:39 a.m., Socrates Acosta Bonilla, 42, of Providence, faced charges of driving under the influence and refusal to submit to a chemical test after being stopped on Branch Avenue.

Bonilla was released pending a future court appearance.

Minutes later, at 2:48 a.m., Stephanie Lanoue, 37, of Woonsocket, was arrested on Route 146 North for driving under the influence and refusing a chemical test, marking her second offense.

Lanoue was processed and released with a court date set at the Third Division District Court.

Rebecca Karb, MD, is an emergency and Street Medicine physician. 

Under the guise of public health and safety, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley recently announced plans to evict people from several large tent encampments in Providence.

It is important for us to be open and transparent about this fact: forced displacement of people from encampments does nothing to end homelessness. We have seen time and again that when we break up encampments in one location, new encampments emerge in other locations. The people living in those encampments do not just disappear, and predictably end up back outside in the absence of a comprehensive plan for permanent supportive housing. Far from helpful, encampment sweeps cost money, waste valuable time and resources, and are ultimately counterproductive.

On any given night in Rhode Island there are around 1,800 people experiencing homelessness, and this number is on the rise. In the wake of the pandemic, the housing supply has dwindled (the rental vacancy rate in Providence is at a low of about 3%, far below the preferred 6% to 8% needed to defend against constant upward pressure on rental prices) and affordable housing is scarce. Providence boasts the highest rental cost increases in the country over the past year.

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Meanwhile, there are only 1,125 shelter beds, with over 600 people on a waiting list. All of these factors have contributed to the rise in unsheltered homelessness (people forced to sleep in uninhabitable spaces such as tent encampments, sidewalks, parks, and abandoned buildings). The encampments seen on the sides of streets or tucked behind parks are evidence of our systemic failure to address the spiraling housing crisis.

It can be difficult to bear witness to human beings living in such inhumane conditions so close to us, and perhaps natural to want to remove from sight a reality that elicits such complicated and contradictory emotions as sadness, guilt, empathy, fear and anger. To be fair, encampments are inherently unhealthy places to live. The lack of access to running water, bathrooms, electricity, and protection from the elements all pose significant health risks.

However, encampments also offer advantages to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Communal living on the street provides safety, security for people’s belongings, companionship, and the sharing of pooled resources to meet basic needs. Encampments allow couples, families and pets to stay together when there are no shelter options. Encampments also allow social service and medical teams reliable and consistent access to provide services and support.

Encampment sweeps harm people experiencing homelessness and undermine the work that outreach teams have been doing to build trust and connect individuals with resources and medical care. Sweeps disrupt daily routines and force individuals to spend time, energy and money on figuring out new sleeping arrangements, re-working transportation routes, and replacing lost or damaged supplies, documents and medications. Following sweeps, individuals can become disconnected from outreach teams, lost to follow up, and derailed from often hard-fought-for treatments plans.

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For example, our Street Medicine team will need to spend valuable time and energy simply locating patients in new places, and we will inevitably lose contact with some patients with whom we have worked hard to establish trusting relationships. This compromises the quality of care we are able to provide, and ultimately leads to worse health outcomes for this already underserved population.

The high costs of these disruptions to community and safety are certainly not worth the perceived (but false) public perception that encampment sweeps are solving the problem of homelessness. It is time for our government leaders to offer real solutions in the form of an adequate supply of safe, affordable, supportive housing and low-barrier access to health care.

Until that can be offered, do not destroy the communities of care, resilience and support that people form to survive the harsh reality of homelessness and do not make it more difficult for the social service providers and medical outreach teams who are trying to serve them.