Call Kurtis: Company Making Hat Out of My Dead Dog's Fur is Ignoring Me

NORTH HIGHLANDS (CBS13) — A year before her German Shepherd Romeo passed away, Me'Shell Miller started collecting his fur.

"He was the nicest dog I ever had," she recalls.

When he quit eating, she was forced to put him down. She knew one day, she'd turn all that fur she collected into something.

"I want a hat now," she said. "I don't even care how much it costs now."

She shipped the fur to Chiengora Fibers in Canada. Online, the company shows how they spin dog fur into yarn and can make hats, mittens, pillows, and even Christmas Stockings. Me'Shell picked out a hat.

"It's really cute and I saved some like glitter buttons to put on it," she said.

The website claims the process of making yarn takes about four weeks. She has a post office tracking number proving the company got the fur. Me'Shell is concerned, because she says they never billed her, and didn't respond to her emails. More than six weeks after sending it, Me'Shell is moving and is afraid Romeo's fur is gone forever.

"I would be concerned," said the Better Business Bureau's Gary Almond.

He says it's the risk you take when you send off something valuable.

"When she sent that fur away, it's theirs," he said. "She can only get it back if they choose to send it back."

We called company owner Melody Macmillan who was vacationing in the Yukon. She told us, I'm on holiday and I don't work on holidays. Despite her website saying 4 weeks, she claims she was backlogged, and the process to make the hat could take more like six months. She assured us she'd fulfill Me'Shell's order once returning from her month-long trip.

Me'Shell says she has since been in contact with Melody and pre-paid her $690 to make the perfect hat. She expects it to arrive in October or November.

"He's going to be my all-time winter hat. He will be a total conversation piece for the future. People are going to ask me, 'where did I get that cool hat?' and I can tell them the story about my beautiful dog."