 I first met Mellie in the spring of l993. She was being trained to be a drug sniffing dog and was living in a nearby town with a local policeman and his folks but she was owned by a local kennel that trained dogs. I gave him some tapes and book references on bloodhounds and told him if her training didn't work out he was probably going to want to have her for his own dog as he would really grow fond of her. Months later I saw an article about her in the local newspaper. They had named her "Say No" for say no to drugs and they planned to "hire her out for drug sniffing" when her training was complete.  I was driving by the kennel one day in the Fall shortly after my 3-year-old bloodhound Emma had sadly died of kidney disease, and I saw Mellie. I went to the kennel and discovered that Mellie was now living there. I called the policeman and his mom answered and said the kennel owner had decided he wanted Mellie living at the kennel. She had lived with this family for 8 months and they offered $l000 to buy her but the kennel owner said he wanted $6000! They were broken hearted as they had grown very fond of Mellie. could I visit his and he was very nice to me and said yes. He even let me take her on walks. It got so when I would drive up she would recognize the sound of my truck and would start baying at the top of her lungs. It always pained me to leave her. The weather had turned rainy and cold and I felt so sorry for her. She was confined to a kennel from 5pm until 8am the next morning. I worried that she would get bloat in the night. They insisted on feeding her one meal a day and it was just before they left for the day. Casually (always the detective) one day I inquired where he had gotten her. He gave me a name. I went right home and called Cara (who has become a wonderful friend through all of this). I felt bad calling her but I wanted to know if she knew what had happened to her. Mellie had done a good job of destroying most of her furniture and lots of valuables. She had found Mellie as a puppy through an ad in the San Diego paper. Mellie's breeder was just interested in money and provided absolutely no education about bloodhounds. After a year of bloodhound antics, Cara was talking to the kennel owner and he said he had always wanted a bloodhound to train for police work, so she reluctantly gave Mellie to him. She and her spouse loved Mellie, it just wasn't working out. Until Cara met me, she didn't know that there were rescued bloodhounds all over the country because for one reason or another they hadn't worked out for other people too. (Cara has since become very active in greyhound rescue and is about to adopt her third greyhound.) [As of 2001 many greyhounds have come into Cara's life and she presently has 6 rescued greyhounds. She likes to adopt the older ones and she spends many many hours a week helping raise money for greyhound support.] Please check out her website at: http://northcoastgreyhounds.net
his family. So here you have this beautiful dog who has lived almost her whole life in homes and now she is stuck in a kennel inside a building that leaks and is confined to a concrete floor with no bed because the kennel guy said she just eats beds. I told him it was probably because she was bored and I bit my tongue not to say what I really felt. he never would have let me near Mellie. I kept visiting her almost daily and one day I spoke with her trainer who was said that she had just found two suitcases at the airport that were planted with drugs. I asked who put the drugs in the suitcases and he said he did. I asked how did he know she wasn't smelling him instead of the drugs. This had never dawned on him -- all along they thought they were training her to find drugs and she was probably just finding their scent. They had also decided to start training her to find explosives. This information really added to my concerns. I had already learned to be very careful when telling Mellie no because the first time I did so she rolled on her back instantly, with the most pitiful expression I had ever seen on a bloodhound. It brought tears to me eyes. I never was able to observe their obedience training of Mellie, but from her reaction, I could tell they went overboard with her. me and walk her when the rain stopped and the kennel owner said yes. (Mellie had lived in the kennel about six months by this time.) I brought her home and called Cara and she came over with her two dogs to play with Mellie. When Cara left, she called the kennel owner and asked if Mellie could come spend the night and he said yes. One month later (it had rained alot and I think he was happy to have someone else feeding her for a month), he called Cara and he wanted Mellie back. Cara said she would bring Mellie in when he wanted to train her and he said no she was his dog and he wanted her back full time. Keep in mind Cara had given her to him and also she had never signed her papers over to him. Luckily it never came to some awful court case. After he realized he wasn't going to get Mellie back easily and the fact that Cara paid him money (he wanted to be compensated for the training) he gave up the fight. in love with her and I knew I could see her anytime. Well can you imagine my joy and surprise when Cara and her husband gave Mellie to me!!! It turned out Mellie's name was Miss Melanie and they had always called her Mellie, not Say No. special bond, different than a puppy bond. She seems to know that I helped to rescue her. The first time I saw her after she was bought and paid for, she put her paws up on my knees and proceeded to lick and lick me and I knew it was her way of saying "Thanks!" Mellie is now four and a half years old and very settled in our home which is now her home. I am about the luckiest person in the world to have been gifted with such a wonderful sweet loving bloodhound and we are having a fantastic life together!
2001 Update: Mellie is now 10 years old and continuing to recover from her mysterious central nervous system disorder. She continues to bring light and love into our home and loves seeing Cara and her spouse and the policeman and his mom -- she never forgets anybody who has loved her!!!
 Mellie  Mellie  Mellie     
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