On a freezing January night in Utah, Payden Trujillo was driving down a snow-covered highway when a dark figure suddenly darted across the road.
She slammed on the brakes — and when she stepped out to look, she found a terrified, trembling dog standing in the snow.
The young pup was thin, shaking, and clearly lost. Hoping to gain her trust, Payden offered a snack from her car and gently coaxed the frightened dog inside.
Once she was safe, Payden brought her to her dad’s house to warm up and check her tags — hoping they’d lead her home.
But instead of a name or phone number, she found a message that broke her heart.
“My name is Lilly. If you found me, please keep me. My family can’t, and I need love.”
“As soon as we saw it, we knew nobody was out there looking for her,” said Payden’s sister, Mercedes Trujillo, who soon took Lilly in. “There are plenty of no-kill shelters around here. We couldn’t believe someone would throw out a dog like that.”
Lilly’s paws were frostbitten, and her body showed signs she’d been fending for herself for a while. But despite everything, she still wanted to trust.
“She was really skinny and scared, but you could tell she wanted to love and be loved,” Mercedes said.
Over the next few weeks, Mercedes gave Lilly everything she’d been denied — warmth, food, and affection. But Lilly carried deep scars from her past. Every time Mercedes left, she panicked, destroying furniture in fear of being abandoned again.
Her separation anxiety made it hard to find a stable home, and Mercedes spent months moving from one friend’s house to another until finally, her university allowed her to bring Lilly to live on campus.
There, Lilly slowly began to heal. Surrounded by students — and especially men, whom she once feared — she learned the world wasn’t such a scary place.
“Since I’m a mechanical engineering student, most of my classmates are guys,” Mercedes said. “Lilly came to class with me and learned to trust them on her own terms.”
Two years later, the once-terrified pup has transformed completely.
Now living in California, Lilly loves hiking, beach days, and road trips with her mom.
Recently, she even gained a little sister — a playful greyhound mix named Ayla, adopted from The Barking Lot Rescue.
“Lilly really likes having a little sister,” Mercedes said. “They have so much fun together.”
Today, Lilly is confident, joyful, and full of life — a far cry from the shivering dog left on the roadside with a tag that pleaded for love.
“Lilly is a complete 180 from who she was two years ago,” Mercedes said. “She’s such a good dog. It didn’t take much — just time, patience, and love.”
You can follow Lilly’s adventures and watch her continue to thrive on Instagram here.
