Bloodhound puts nose to the grindstone

Ruby helps Wake deputies find the missing and the wanted

Huge ears flapping, she launches from the cage in the back of the truck, and the big black nose hits the ground almost as soon as the paws. Meet Ruby the bloodhound.

Or you could call her Deputy Ruby because she works for the Wake County Sheriff's Office.

The canine uses her highly sensitive sniffer to track "anything from missing children all the way to armed robbery suspects," according to her handler, Deputy Jeremy Johnson. Johnson estimates he and Ruby have found 35 people in 4 1/2 years working together.

"The missing children and adults ... those are obviously the more rewarding ones," Johnson said. "They genuinely need your help."

Ruby's mournful face contrasts with her friendly, goofy personality. She leaps up on trainer Tracy Bowling and gives a low, happy growl before starting their training exercise on a recent Monday. A tendril of drool dangles from Ruby's jowl.

"It's what they're best known for -- those droopy ears and slobber," Johnson said.

Asked to describe Ruby in one word, Johnson hesitates.

"Smelly?" offers a colleague.

Joined by a half-dozen other sheriff's deputies from Wake and Johnston counties, Ruby and Johnson practiced following winding trails through the woods along the county line near N.C. 42.

In the "tactical tracking" exercise, Johnson and the dog were flanked by camouflage-clad deputies carrying assault rifles and shotguns. A team leader slowly maneuvered the group through the underbrush. It's not the breakneck pace seen in jailbreak movies, and Ruby is totally silent as she tracks.

This slow and careful technique is used to find armed suspects, and the formation is designed to protect the dog team.

The Wake Sheriff's Office has about a dozen dogs, said Bowling, the department's dog training director. In addition to Ruby there's one other bloodhound, as well as narcotics dogs, bomb dogs and general purpose dogs.

But it's Ruby who has enjoyed a higher profile among local news hounds.

Last year, it took her only 15 minutes to find a woman who'd gone missing from her home, and was lost about half a mile away.

Last summer, she tracked down a suspected car thief who led police and deputies on a chase across a southern Wake golf course.

Ironically, it was Ruby herself who needed finding after she went missing this month. A state trooper spotted her about six hours after she escaped from her kennel.