Ruby pads around the High Point Rockers front office like she owns it.
Doors are always open so the 1-year-old dog can hunt down the staff members known for gifting treats.
Communications Director Steve Shutt has a hard time saying no, even if he must vacuum his floor more frequently to clean up the dog hair. Anything for Ruby.
She likes to nap near the heater, so a pink blanket covers the carpeted floor behind the executive assistant’s desk. Her brown, furry face perks up every time the Amazon delivery worker walks in with packages. She follows him until she receives a few pats on the head. Then she returns to her sleeping nest.
In the office of Rockers President Pete Fisch, a soft blue blanket overlays his black leather couch — “Ruby’s spot.” Fisch said he always wanted a ballpark dog, but Ruby is more than that. She’s a part of his family.
He chuckles when he shares that most of his phone’s camera roll is filled with photos of Ruby. More than his wife and kids, he jokes.
On game days, she perches next to Fisch at the gate to greet fans. She remembers the people who always carry treats and the families who bring their dogs. When she gets tired, she sneaks off to the ticket office to sleep on the couch or returns to her spot in Fisch’s office.
“She’s become a fixture here,” Fisch said.
A year ago, all Ruby knew were the walls confining her inside the Asheville Humane Society, where she was born, and the disaster that followed. On Sept. 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene wrecked much of western North Carolina with flooding and dangerous winds, causing landslides and killing more than a hundred people.
In the aftermath of the storm, organizations and families across the Triad, the state and the nation stepped up to airlift animals out of the wreckage and support impacted shelters.
And Ruby went from having no home to two.
A plane ride to safety
Kim Alboum’s phone didn’t start ringing immediately.
As BISSELL Pet Foundation’s Director of Field Operations, she reached out to western North Carolina animal shelters the moment Helene hit as a part of her usual work with the animal incident management team. However, downed power lines and flooded infrastructure cut off communication in the region. Some shelter workers drove around for hours until they found cell service. It took at least a day before they returned her messages.
By then, Alboum said, “We realized we had a catastrophic situation.”
Like many homes and businesses, animal shelters across the region had no power or access to water — a devastating combination for animal welfare and disease management. Shelters searched for resources. People with the Asheville Humane Society lugged containers of water from a staff member’s at-home well back to the animals.
Alboum’s attention turned to relieving these burdens. First, she sent a plane to airlift animals ready for adoption to Winston-Salem — a common practice in disaster relief to avoid clogging up roads needed by emergency services. Relocating these pets freed up space in the shelter for incoming animals hurt, sick or displaced by the storm. BISSELL transported 1,200 animals out of the Asheville airport, 800 of which moved to other shelters across North Carolina. Shelters across the Triad rallied around this effort, taking in as many animals as possible.
“Our shelters nationally are in a perpetual state of crisis right now,” Alboum said. “Big dogs are sitting in shelters. There’s no room. People are trying to surrender dogs because of economic issues and lack of access to care for veterinary issues. Our shelters are all full. And yet, when there’s a disaster or crisis, you see shelters, even the shelters that are working tirelessly to get their pets adopted, step up and take some of these pets for what little space they have.”
A litter of brown and white puppies was flown to the Forsyth Humane Society. Many shelters were already overcrowded, so Forsyth Humane mobilized immediately to get the animals adopted or into foster homes. Fisch’s wife, Melissa, saw a post about a mud-covered puppy named “Starfish” that was available for foster care. She called Fisch immediately.
“Would you want to foster?” she asked.
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“I’ll think about it,” Fisch replied.
“We’ve already been approved,” his wife said.
A day later, workers with Forsyth Humane called back to say a family wanted the puppy. The Fischs couldn’t give her up. They chose to adopt her instead.
They named her Ruby the Rocker Dog — for alliteration purposes — but just Ruby, when she’s not working. She joined three other dogs in their house in Winston-Salem.
“We gave her a home,” Fisch said. “We gave her a second chance.”
‘Fills your heart with hope’
As pets found temporary and permanent homes, Alboum and other organizations, such as Guilford County Animal Services and national nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society, worked to provide supplies to pet owners on the ground and assist shelter staff, who were dealing with their personal affairs in the aftermath of the storm.
Best Friends brought large bags of pet food, cat litter, water and medication to pet resource hubs in key areas of the region. The nonprofit also launched a mobile veterinary clinic to combat flea and tick infestations for displaced animals and large-scale wounds inflicted by Helene’s damage.
“It was one of the most difficult disasters that we’ve seen just by nature of a hurricane hitting so deep into land and a mountainous region being devastated by flood water and mud, losing so many people and animals along the way,” Sharon Hawa, Best Friends’ emergency response manager, said. Later adding, “When all the news media moved on to the next big disaster — Hurricane Milton hit quickly after Hurricane Helene, so Helene became not news anymore — we were there for a very long time.”
While Guilford County’s Animal Shelter was too full to take in pets, according to Alboum, Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega responded to a call to action from the state’s emergency management division. Ortega loaded up the county’s animal support trailer and drove 12 hours round-trip from Greensboro to Asheville through the wreckage to deliver additional supplies. He dropped off 20-30 crates to assist with animal transport efforts, as well as cat and dog food, water, towels, blankets and litter boxes to provide the core functions for setting up a temporary shelter.
A few weeks later, Ortega partnered with the Forsyth County’s Sheriff’s Department and Randolph County Animal Services to transport nearly 70 pets from an overwhelmed shelter in Brevard to Forsyth Humane to be placed in foster homes.
“Yes, it’s hard to see what the shelters in western North Carolina were going through. But it just fills your heart with hope when you see other animal shelters coming out to support them, and you see the communities coming out to adopt and foster because they know the shelters need help,” Alboum said. “It really reminds you that there are good people out there.”
Finding a forever home
Every morning, Fisch wakes at 5 a.m. to Ruby standing on his chest. That’s how he knows it’s time to go to work.
Fisch loads Ruby into his car to go to Truist Point Stadium, where she’s been his constant companion since she was 3 months old. When she was younger, she sat in the front seat. Over the course of the drive, Ruby would lean against Fisch in the driver’s seat.
“We’ve had a bond since day one,” he said.
A year later, she’s gotten too big for the front seat. She’s acquired two Rockers jerseys with her name on the back and a red baseball-themed bandana for when she can’t stand the shirt on gamedays. This year, the Rockers also sold her official T-shirt in the team store and dedicated some of the proceeds to Forsyth Humane.
Ruby has carved out more than a home at the stadium, she fosters joy in the Rockers baseball community. Shutt can’t adopt a dog due to his hours at work, but he can spoil Ruby like he would his own pets.
“I play ball with her,” he said. “Sometimes, I get down on the floor with her like I used to do as a kid with our dog. I get my fill.”
Ruby is in biweekly training now. Her trainer, an Iraq War veteran who trains service dogs for other veterans, wants her to become High Point’s official ball or bat dog. But Fisch?
“I don’t know if she’ll bring the balls back,” he said. “And the bats might be a little big for her.”
For now, she’ll stick with fishing for treats and sleeping in her spots.
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