10/30/2026
Where are they now??
Killian! (Now known as Mellow)
This beautiful story was written by his now owner.. Megan🥲 And boy it is a GOOD one. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the story!
“Some of you might remember Killian. And if you do, you probably remember the search. For everyone else, buckle up😂
In January 2024, Killian, one of our extremely undersocialized doodles, jumped a SIX-FOOT fence at his foster home and disappeared.
After weeks of searching, we finally got a sighting. I happened to be fostering his sibling, Rika, so I took her to the area where he’d been spotted. She kept stopping at patches of matted grass, but we never found him.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her behavior, so we went back the next morning. After walking and searching with no luck, I turned around to head to my car…
And suddenly, a giant red tumbleweed came blasting across the road.
IT WAS KILLIAN!😂
Loretta Pierce and I set a live trap, spending days trying to tempt him with rotisserie chicken. Someone kept stealing the food and dumping it outside the trap. But around 3:30 on one morning, after roughly three weeks on the run, we finally got the news: KILLIAN WAS IN THE TRAP!
He returned to his original fosters, but I had a long stretch off work and thought, “Give me 20 days. He’ll be fine.”
LOL…
Boy, was I wrong.
When I took over fostering, Killian became Mellow. The name was a little aspirational.
He was WILD. Double-leashed for over a month, living behind a four-foot fence he absolutely could’ve jumped, and convinced humans existed solely to provide food and open doors. He loved dogs. People? Completely unnecessary.
Getting him back inside could take 40+ minutes, and he wasn’t a fan of my pr***en. We worked on trust, boundaries, and “touch,” one of the TWO verbal commands he might follow off-leash to this day.
Eventually, we tried adoption.
He came back the next day…
A few weeks later, a wonderful couple tried again. They genuinely loved him, but Mellow got loose. I spent a week or two practically camping in their yard with my two best dogs, trying to convince him that life on the run wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
We trapped him, tried again, and then…
He got loose AGAIN!!
And that’s when we finally realized something.
Mellow had been home all along❤️
So he came back to stay. We sent him to training, not to change who he was, but to give him the skills he needed for his safety and my family’s sanity. Those two weeks made all the difference.
Today, Mellow loves his family and his pack. The dog who once barked and growled at my pr***en doesn’t even mind tiny visitors now.
Most men? He could still do without them. But there’s one special man he absolutely adores.
He’s still wild. Still crazy. And I’m convinced there’s a giant red tumbleweed inside him that will always believe fences are merely suggestions.
But we didn’t turn a wild, terrified dog into a perfect dog.
We gave him enough time to become our dog.
Somewhere between the escapes, traps, stakeouts, failed adoptions, and endless patience, the dog we were preparing for someone else’s family had already found his.
From a terrified dog on the run to a giant red tumbleweed to Mellow.
My dog. His family. His pack. His home. ❤️
He’s still wild and crazy at heart.
He just finally knows where home is.”
