Everyday Hero Ritchie Rud has heart for Meals on Wheels clients and their pets

Editor's note: This is the third in a holiday series called Everyday Heroes, which recognizes those in the community who do good things out of the spotlight. Each was nominated to be recognized. The series continues Thursday with Lynn Walling. Featured Monday was Trevor Allen; Tuesday was Burtis Williams.

Ritchie Rud, an “Everyday Hero” for 2022, always is reminded of his late wife’s love for animals.

From either taking care of his own rescue cats and dogs to transporting those owned by Meals on Wheels Plus clients to the vet or groomer, he knows she would be proud of him.

“This is all part of my grief journey,” he said.

In March of 2021, the Meals on Wheels driver began getting animals from clients’ homes and taking them to a veterinarian as part of the nonprofit’s Pets to the Vet program. This past April, he decided to take animals to the groomer to have their nails trimmed or be trimmed.

Betty Bradley, who nominated Rud for “Everyday Hero," is the Meals on Wheels Plus executive director. She said the longtime nonprofit partnered several years ago with Big Country Veterinary Clinic and the Texas Veterinary Medical Foundation to provide a free annual exam, and free immunizations and medicines for animals of low-income clients.

However, Rud pays out of his own pocket for each animal’s nail trimming and grooming.

“Ritchie Rud has a big heart for pets and their owners,” she wrote in her nomination.

Rud said he came up with the idea of getting a groomer involved while driving by Dog Gone Pretty Pet Salon. He spoke to the owner, whose mother he had delivered meals to years ago, and was able to get a discount for taking multiple animals.

Rud retired in 2001 from Dyess Air Force Base after being a C-130 loadmaster for 27 years. He got a degree in social work from Abilene Christian University in 2004 and briefly helped Meals on Wheels as part of his degree requirements. He also worked as an Abilene police dispatcher/call taker.

He and his wife moved to Katy, near Houston, where he worked for a company that aided corporate pilots with international logistics and flight preparation. He later loaded cargo and was a flight crew member on large commercial aircraft.

He returned to Abilene in 2020 after his wife’s death.

Bradley said Rud has delivered more than13,000 meals since rejoining Meals on Wheels and made more than150 trips to the vet with many involving multiple pets.

Additionally, he has taken 132 pets for nail trimming, 16 to be groomed and four for a bath.

“He’s even bought sweaters for pets recently groomed because he knows they will be cold without the heavy blanket of fur they once had,” Bradley wrote.

She said Rud asks to be assigned different routes so he can watch for pets who need care. He has assisted four Meals on Wheels clients with euthanasia of their animals when they couldn’t get them to a vet or couldn’t afford the cost.

He also got a pet after a client died and took it to another client whose pet died a few months previously, she said.

“I check on the fur babies all the time,” while delivering meals, Rud said.

He said the groomer to whom he takes the animals to has gone with him Tuesdays when the business is closed, to do in-house visits. He added that some clients are leery of letting go of their animals even for a trip to the groomer because they are so attached.

At home, Rud cares for a handful of cats and dogs that were either rescued, abandoned or injured.

Bradley said he has kept pets while their owner was hospitalized and even provided shelter for animals whose owner had died.

Rud said he wants to create a network of foster parents who can home an animal until someone takes it permanently if a death occurs.

“One of my goals is not to have the client’s pet go to an animal shelter,” he said.

“He also would like to find people willing to adopt pets whose owner is no longer able to care for them for some reason,” Bradley wrote.

Watching his wife be so dedicated to the family’s pets inspired him.

“I love them too, but she really loved them,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Everyday Hero Rud has heart for Meals on Wheels clients and their pets