$obj = $model->getObject($id);
if(null !== $obj) {
    doSomething($obj);
}

Obviously this is a little cumbersome, since I have to do this every single time I get an object using a function that might return null. Reginald Braithwaite, author of andand, has made this process a heck of a lot easier for all the Rubyists out there. His gem allows natural method chaining for functions that can return nil:

@phone = Location.find(:first, ...elided... ).andand.phone

This saves a lot of boilerplate code and improves readability. I like it.