As we enter our 7th year of “Serving Our Nation’s Working Dogs” we wanted to give those of you that may be unfamiliar with our work some history and information about our organization and mission.

Mission K9 Rescue was founded in the early fall of 2013 by Kristen Maurer, Louisa Kastner, and Bob Bryant. Both Maurer (Masters in Non Profit Management) and Kastner (Army Veterinary Technician) had prior experience with Military and Contract Working Dogs while Bryant was an advertising and fundraising specialist that gained a passion for the work after meeting both women a year prior to the start of the organization.

The founders were an excellent fit together, each having unique specialties and business skills that quickly ramped up the growth of the organization. Their initial focus was on reuniting Military Working Dogs with prior handlers, yet that quickly changed once they learned the plight of Contract Working Dogs that were often kept far too long in bad situations overseas. Soon, they began to receive many requests to help these Working Dogs as well, securing local kennel space to house them.

MissionK9’s presence on social media has been key to getting the word out about our mission. In just 6 years we’ve grown our Facebook page to over 98,000 active and engaged fans. That has helped us continue funding our mission through individual donations and gives us the ability to have needs seen and helped to be filled without waiting for website visitors to learn of our needs.

Many would be surprised to learn that most of the donations that allow us to complete our work is from individuals. Many great donors have helped us through when needs were great. We have some awesome sponsors, with the Petco Foundation providing us with grants for over 3 years now. Another great sponsor is the United States War Dogs Association. They have helped us from the beginning with transportation funding and we are recognized as Chapter 6 of their organization. We can’t thank our sponsors enough. They have helped our organization grow and provided much needed funding through the years.

Now, more than ever we need to grow beyond our current financial reach and we are actively seeking more sponsors. We will honor your gifts and make you proud!

In 2016 we began work on our Veteran K9 Ranch in the Houston area. This 4 acre property was converted into a kennel and rehabilitation facility that houses around 30 dogs at most times, with others in medical boarding. We will soon have a hospice facility for dogs that could not otherwise be adopted to provide a loving environment for the most difficult dogs.

This fall (2019) we hope to improve the ranch with a second kennel, doubling our capacity. We are also retrofitting an RV that will allow us to complete more stateside transports efficiently and saving thousands on travel expenses.

Since 2013, Mission K9 Rescue has brought over 500 working dogs home from worldwide locations including Military Working Dogs, Contract Working Dogs, Police K9’s and Mine Detection Dogs. Over 280 of these dogs were reunited with their former handlers.