diff --git a/lib/hydra/messaging_io.rb b/lib/hydra/messaging_io.rb
index fc981c2..da8764f 100644
--- a/lib/hydra/messaging_io.rb
+++ b/lib/hydra/messaging_io.rb
@@ -8,14 +8,17 @@ module Hydra #:nodoc:
     #  IO.gets
     #    => Hydra::Message # or subclass
     def gets
-      raise IOError unless @reader
-      message = @reader.gets
-      return nil unless message
-      return Message.build(eval(message.chomp))
-    rescue SyntaxError, NameError
-      # uncomment to help catch remote errors by seeing all traffic
-      #$stderr.write "Not a message: [#{message.inspect}]\n"
-      return gets
+      while true
+        begin
+          raise IOError unless @reader
+          message = @reader.gets
+          return nil unless message
+          return Message.build(eval(message.chomp))
+        rescue SyntaxError, NameError
+          # uncomment to help catch remote errors by seeing all traffic
+          #$stderr.write "Not a message: [#{message.inspect}]\n"
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     # Write a Message to the output IO object. It will automatically
diff --git a/test/fixtures/many_outputs_to_console.rb b/test/fixtures/many_outputs_to_console.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a79a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/many_outputs_to_console.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+10000.times do 
+  $stdout.write "A non-hydra message...\n"
+  $stdout.flush
+end
+
+$stdout.write "{:class=>Hydra::Messages::TestMessage, :text=>\"My message\"}\n"
+$stdout.flush
diff --git a/test/ssh_test.rb b/test/ssh_test.rb
index 6b0ee40..eb331ef 100644
--- a/test/ssh_test.rb
+++ b/test/ssh_test.rb
@@ -11,4 +11,15 @@ class SSHTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal "Hello World", response.text
     ssh.close
   end
+
+  should "be able to handle a large number of non-Hydra console output" do
+    ssh = Hydra::SSH.new(
+      'localhost', # connect to this machine
+      File.expand_path(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__))), # move to the test directory
+      "ruby fixtures/many_outputs_to_console.rb"
+    )
+    response = ssh.gets
+    assert_equal "My message", response.text
+    ssh.close
+  end
 end