LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (WDAF) — Talk about being discovered!
Last winter, someone found a shivering 5-month-old puppy near a snowy woodpile in Leavenworth, Kansas. “Pepsi,” as he was later named, was also suffering from heartworm.
“They took him to the shelter, and there’s just too many dogs, so he was at risk for euthanasia,” said Melissa Millett, a professional animal trainer for TV shows and movies.
As fate would have it, Millett was conducting a search of North America for a dog who could play the role of “Krypto,” Superboy’s dog on the HBO Max and Netflix show “Titans.”
“The dog has to look like the comic book character, and Pepsi is the closest that we found to that original comic book character look,” Millett said.
Even more remarkable, Pepsi partially owes his new life to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“He was wearing a Kansas City Chiefs collar, and it looked like a superhero collar,” Millett said. “So we took that as a sign, so we were just rooting for them in the Super Bowl. It’s amazing.”
Now Pepsi is living the dream, working and training full-time near Toronto where the DC Comics show “Titans” is produced.
“It’s an extremely popular show, and the character (Krypto) has all of Superboy’s powers. He can fly. He has human intelligence. He’s got laser eyes, just it’s really cool.”
Not all rescue dogs get a Hollywood ending, so Millett hopes Pepsi’s incredible story will encourage more people to adopt pets from shelters.
“I knew I wanted him to be a movie star, so all of his training is geared towards being a movie star.”