K9s for Warriors gets our vote for Thank You Thursday

I recently read a fantastic National Geographic article online. It lead me to the K9s for Warriors website where I was thoroughly impressed. I’ve been following K9s for Warriors on Facebook for quite some time. Befitting its name, the organization provides service dogs to Veterans and active duty military personnel with PTSD and traumatic injury. What’s more, the majority of these dogs are rescued from animal shelters. This was the first time I had visited their website and I’m really glad I did. Here’s what I found.

Sheri Duval founded K9s for Warriors after her son, a veteran K9 police officer serving as a bomb-dog handler, returned from two tours in Iraq with PTSD. In Sheri’s own words, K9s for Warriors is “a small organization doing big work”. They have a live-in facility where warriors train, bond and even play with their service dogs… at no cost to the warrior I might add! The program is well thought out and brilliantly executed, but distressingly under funded.

K9s for Warriors has helped 100s of service members, veterans and dogs but there is now a backlog, a year-long waiting list. I’m providing a link to their ‘Donate‘ page where you can assist with sponsorship, a monetary gift, a food or necessary-items donation, donate a dog or volunteer your time. 100% of your personal donation goes directly to the program. Corporate sponsors help with day-to-day operations.

Our Thank You Thursday honors today go to K9s for Warriors for liberating our heroes both human and hound, and I quote, “empowering warriors to return to civilian life with dignity and independence”.