We get asked a lot, “What exactly do you do?” here at Paws of Honor. Our mission statement beings with “The goal of Paws of Honor (POH) is to provide veterinary care and products at no charge* for retired military and law enforcement K9s that have served our country, locally or globally.” While our ‘Problem and Solution’ page does a good job at highlighting what we do, in this article we’re going to break it down even more!
We Don’t Adopt!
K9 Josie posing on a summer day near a lake!
First, let’s cover a common misconception: none of the dogs in our program are on site, or at our office in Williamsburg, Virginia. All the K9’s we tend to are at home, living their retired lives with a loving family. We do not adopt dogs into the program, nor do we facilitate adoptions for dogs. The dogs get entered in our program when their current owner (typically the handler they served with) reaches out to us. We believe strongly in the relationship between the handler and the canine. With our program we help maintain that relationship by giving the handler the support they need to keep their dog living a happy, healthy retirement – while getting to stay together and not having to part ways. We help keep these bonded heroes together, after all – Two Heroes, One Leash is our motto, and we’re committed to keeping both ends of that leash together.
What is a “Working Dog”?
Next let’s focus on the type of dogs, as this can sometimes get confusing – and it helps establish “who” we’re helping. We do not mean medical service dogs such as seeing eye dogs and other medical companions. The dogs we take in served alongside government, military and law enforcement teams. These dogs include the usual like German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois, but did you know we even have a beagle working dog in our program?! Check out Norman here! If the dog was actively apart of the organization and has a retirement letter from such, they’re eligible for our support. The roles they provided can range greatly, but the majority worked in patrol or detection (or both) at their departments. But we also have dogs that were trained in tracking humans to catch people on the run, or even find missing people. Some dogs were trained in bite work to apprehend criminals, we even have a dog who worked for the TSA that detected illegally imported foods! Some dogs rode in helicopters in the Middle East, some chased criminals down in a suburb somewhere in the U.S, some kept drugs from crossing our borders – all did this with a dedication to serve. We’re proud of their service, and now we’re proud to serve them
How We Help!
K9 Dani with veterinary staff.
So, now that you know what kind of dogs we help – let’s cover the topic of “how” we help. For this we’ll focus on the “provide veterinary care and products” portion of our mission statement. When we say we cover veterinary care, we mean it. We’ve had veterinary bills come through that were $20,000 or more, we were glad to help. The only times we will turn down a vet bill is if the procedure is cosmetic (e.g. nail trimmings) or the veterinary office tending to the K9 recommends against the procedure. When the owners of the K9’s take their dog to the veterinary clinic, they simply direct the bill our way. Then we coordinate with the veterinary office to get the bills paid, it’s that easy! Some dogs must go on special medicated foods, we even cover that. There are canines in our program that have monthly deliveries of high quality, prescription food, all covered by Paws of Honor!
How YOU Can Help?
Now is where you come in! Notice the asterisk in our mission statement? That’s because our ability to completely cover these bills is based on charitable donations. When bills begin to outpace donations coming in, we’re forced to not accept as many dogs as we would like to. This is where we NEED your help. Every bit of supporting our mission helps us keep taking care of these four-legged heroes while keeping both ends of the leash together. Every time you interact with our social media accounts, wear our gear or most importantly donate, you’re helping take care of a canine who courageously served our great nation. We will continue to do our best, but we need your help!
If you would like to support our canines that served our nation proudly, please consider donating to our mission! We cover veterinary expenses so the handlers of these four-legged heroes can focus on giving their beloved partners a long and healthy retirement, because that’s what they deserve! If you would like to learn more about the other courageous canines in our program, follow this link!
*Based on the availability of charitable contributions