Do you consider the ring a character in LotR?

[Keneldil the Polka-dot]

Exerpts from a conversation between Gandalf and Frodo at Bag End:

A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo.

It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that decided things. The Ring left _him.'_

The Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped from Isildur's hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came it caught poor Deagol, and he was murdered; and after that Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with him he would never leave his deep pool again. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum.

Sounds like conscious decision and action to me.