Mother and daughter team rescue Ruby

Keystone residents have all seen the posters for Ruby dog. They were posted everywhere on trees, on light poles and at the town library.
People saw a picture of a beautiful boxer pitbull mix with the name Ruby and a reward for $5,000 if found. That number seemed astronomical to most people.
But to Kyra Mack, Ruby’s owner, it was a small sum to pay for the return of her best friend.
“She’s my life hands down,” Mack said about soon-to-be 7 years old  Ruby. Ruby is her first dog and her emotional support animal.
The pair met in an ironic twist of fate when her friend’s brother could no longer take care of the dog. Mack took Ruby in to foster and then rehomed her. But the rehoming didn’t work out.
“I was like, this dog has made it to me twice and she’s mine,” said Mack.
That was 2017 and Ruby has been by her side ever since.
Earlier this fall, however, Mack was on vacation in Georgia with her mother. A friend in Rapid City was watching Ruby. That friend came to Keystone and was camping in an area known as Government Field when Ruby took off.
The minute Mack heard about it she cut her trip short. She changed her plane tickets and came home immediately. She tried to handle things as soon as she landed. It was nighttime and she couldn’t see anything and by 2 a.m. she was utterly exhausted.
“We went out for the next three to four days and when I had to go back to work my grandparents looked,” Mack said. The posters started going up around that time too.
Mack said she was willing to do anything if it meant getting Ruby back.
“People were going to think $5,000 was excessive,” said Mack. “But Ruby is a homebody dog. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t coming to us. Somebody had to have her.”
With that line of reasoning Mack said the reward sum had to make it worthwhile to give up the dog she was so convinced somebody had.
Keystone resident Cathy Little Bull lives down the highway from Government Field. She saw Mack put up a poster in her neighborhood and heard her calling for Ruby.
Little Bull, a dog owner and animal lover herself, reached out to Kyra and told her that she would start looking for the missing dog. Through social media she could monitor Ruby sightings until as weeks passed, there were no more.
“God spoke to me,” said Little Bull. “You need to get this dog back.”
Each time she would go into Keystone she would go down side streets looking for Ruby.
Mack began to lose hope.
“I was like, ‘there’s no way. She’s a spoiled brat. She doesn’t sleep on the floor; she has three laundry sized baskets.’”
Without Ruby Mack said, “there was a part of me that was drifting into darkness.”
Nine weeks after Ruby went missing, her mother approached her early while she was still asleep.
“‘Someone has Ruby, you need to get to Keystone,’” her mother said.
Mack was so confused and so excited she walked out of the house in a T-shirt and shorts.
The story of Ruby’s eventual capture is remarkable.
Robin Scott, the Keystone librarian, had been feeding feral cats daily by the maintenance yard in town. Ruby took advantage of the cat food as well and Little Bull knew this was her opportunity.
She rented a trap from the Humane Society and put some cinder blocks around it in order to catch Ruby. Each evening she tried to entice Ruby into the trap.
“She was too smart,” Little Bull said, who turned to God praying for snow so she could see Ruby’s tracks and find the dog’s hiding spot.
It was after the first snowfall that Little Bull’s prayers were answered, seeing Ruby turning by Halley’s  store and running up to the Holy Terror Mine.
“We tracked her up to the mine and down to the old wash station,” said Little Bull, who had already received  a bag with one of Ruby’s toys, her blanket as well as a T-shirt with Mack’s scent on it.
Little Bull’s  daughter, Tracy Spaans, squeezed through the gate of the mine with the bag and sat on that blanket, despite the cold weather.
Ruby had already made the mine her home and was protective, barking incessantly.
Spaans was undeterred.  
She set food in a dish and waited patiently. Ruby would go back and forth barking and approaching the dish. Eventually Ruby trusted Spaans enough to start eating the kibble. Spaans then pulled the kibble closer. About an hour passed until finally Spaans was able to coax Ruby into eating out of her hand, Slowly and carefully so as not to cause any more anxiety, Spaans put a leash around Ruby, who had lost her collar.
Little Bill said Ruby was nervous and relieved. She  was like, “someone’s going to take me home.”
Mack showed up about 10 minutes later, still in her shorts and T-shirt.
“It was so cold,” Little Bull said.
Mack was very excited and Little Bull had to remind the 23-year-old to speak gently so as not to cause Ruby any fear.
“Ruby perked up once she heard Mack’s voice but it was when she used the nickname Sugar Butt that Ruby literally dragged Tracy down the hill,” Little Bull said.
The reunion had everyone in tears.
“Ruby was jumping on her and whining and crying,” Little Bull said.
Mack said if it were not for Little Bull she would not have found Ruby. The mine is nearly six miles from where the dog went missing.
Ruby smelled like kerosene and oil. She survived due to  the cat food. A trip to the vet shortly after the reunion showed Ruby had lost 30 pounds and her liver showed  the beginning signs of starvation. Other than that she was fine.
“The vet told me, ‘Ruby should not be alive. If you don’t believe in God you may as well start,’” Mack said.
Mack is not sure how Ruby didn’t get attacked by an animal or hit by a car. To this day she still looks at Ruby and wonders, “how are you here?”
Mack insisted on giving the monetary reward to Little Bull despite Little Bull’s incessant protest.
“No one else ever tried to help us,” Mack said.
Little Bull used the money by paying it forward and helping another animal in need. As for Ruby, Little Bull says, “she’s a survivor and she needed to be home.”
Mack wants Little Bull and Spaans to know she can’t thank them enough.
“They saved a part of me,” she said.