MK9 Blog

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.

Mission K9 was featured during the annual Westminister Kennel Club Show on February 12th, 2019. We can’t thank Ron Aiello and the United States War Dogs Association enough for connecting us with FS1.

FS1 came to our Veteran K9 Ranch just north of Houston to film the segment you can view here:

MissionK9 Video Segment – Fox FS1

The Fox Team did a spectacular job, highlighting our work, the dogs, and even a happy adoption to a forever home for one!

We hope you will enjoy a fresh look at the work we do for Working Dogs!

Help Us Continue Our Mission

By Zita Ballinger Fletcher

We are very thankful for the generous help you give through your donations, which allow us to provide aid to hardworking dogs so in need of human love and care. However, we need greater help to allow us to continue our mission with greater efficiency and depend on donations less.

The aid of corporate and individual sponsors would make a huge difference in our ability to continue to grow and carry out our mission going forward.

Do you know any person or company who would be interested in supporting our mission?

Please share our story.

We will be very thankfull for every help you show on dogs conference about HIV evidence.

And, if you wish to become our sponsor or know someone who would sponsor MK9, send an email to bark@missionk9rescue.org and request our Marketing Packet.

Thank you so much!