Let’s foster
kindness together.
We cultivate Compassion, educate Empathy, and foster Kindness to help all pets and animals live a happier and healthier life.
The Life of Kai is a proud recipient of funding from Maddie’s Fund. #ThanksToMaddie. Open Arms Challenge 2024 Award Winner!! The funding will help us grow our programs of strengthening the human-animal bond and serve the community by helping more dogs and their people.
The Life of Kai is a proud recipient of the Next Steps Grant from the Binky Foundation. The funding will help us grow our programs of strengthening the human-animal bond and serve the community by helping more dogs and their people.
The Life of Kai is a proud recipient of funding from The Pollination Project. The Pollination Project Foundation provides seed funding for people who are driving transformational change in their communities, cultures and countries.
Our mission
At Life of Kai, we believe our strength is measured not just by the words we stand by, but by the actions we take to make a difference. Since 2021, we have been dedicated to helping homeless pets, rescued dogs, and now community cats, while fostering compassion within our communities.
Inspired by Kai, who was adopted from a high-kill shelter in 2012, and touched by the plight of Kitty, a community cat found alone in a field in 2024, we honor their legacy by working to create a kinder, more compassionate world for animals and the people who love them.
Ways we help
The Life of Kai: Compassion Connections' goals are changing and shaping lives. Our Non-Profit organization provides a holistic approach to solving our communities' challenges of finding forever homes for our homeless animals. We accomplish this through fostering and reducing relinquishment by empowering the guardians through coaching, training, and better understanding of their pets. We work with rescues and their foster caregiver helping displaced shelter dogs find their future homes. We also help grow kindness in our future generations through humane education.
WE WANT TO DO GOOD!
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We support a foster-centric and rescue-centric model for sheltering displaced animals. In this space, the community provides a temporary home and behavior rehabilitation to improve their chance of being adopted. We believe early interventions can impact the success of the adoption. Our rescue assistance program, BRIDGES, provides behavior teaching and resources to rescue organizations, foster families, and new adopters. Our networks include rescues in Northern California as well as rescues in other states through HART (Humane Alliance of Rescue Trainers.) In 2023, we extended our services to pets of the unhoused working with the Street Dog Coalition in Sacramento. We also add “Welcome Home” project to the program helping newly adopted dog adjusting to its new home by providing a “transition”complementary session to the adopter. In 2024, we create “Street Dogs Porject” working with pets of the unhoused in Davis. Our long-term goal is to create an online resource page to share a manual on how to survive the first 100 hours with newly fostered or adopted dogs. We plan to make the manual accessible to rescues, foster parents, or new adopters.
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Navigating online sources for pet information may be effortless, but securing reliable, helpful, and science-based advice proves to be a formidable task. The Kai Kind Community Connections program aims to address this challenge by providing quality information books about dogs, free and easily accessible to all pet guardians and foster caregivers. In 2021, we conducted a public survey to explore optimal methods for delivering our books.
Our initial attempt involved placing books in random free little libraries in town, resulting in a successful pilot study where our books disappeared within two days. Securing a seed grant from Maddie’s Fund in 2022 allowed us to implement an even more effective distribution method, we strategically launched our very own Kai Kind Lending Library in 2023 at a popular dog-walking trail. This location not only garnered a positive reception from the community but also ensured ample foot traffic, precisely targeting the right demographics. Beyond simply sharing books, our plan includes implementing education programs and activities for the public through this library. Looking ahead, we aspire to establish a second library specifically designed for children and young adults.
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Kind is Cool began as a humane education initiative I introduced while serving on the Unleashing The Possibilities Inc. (UTP) board. Its early goal was to engage the community and build connections between animal welfare, compassion, and empathy.
While UTP’s focus remained on developing a new shelter, Kind is Cool served as a small outreach effort within that mission. For a time, community members could register through UTP, while Life of Kai served mainly as a space to share information and resources about the program. Over time, it became clear the program needed a broader, more flexible approach - one that could grow through creative partnerships and direct community involvement.
In 2023, Life of Kai became the new home for Kind is Cool, allowing it to develop as a true program rather than an outreach effort. That year, we partnered with Davis Kids Kamp, teaching humane education to over 120 underserved children in Davis and nearby communities.
In 2024, the program paused again as we reflected on how to make its impact deeper and more accessible. This led to a full redesign and, in 2025, the launch of a new virtual format and integration with a community Kids Empathy Little Library - a way to bring empathy-based education to even more children and families.
Presently, Kind is Cool continues to evolve under Life of Kai, expanding through virtual readings, summer collaborations, and partnerships with RedRover Readers and in collaboration with UTP. Together, these efforts help children learn to see the world through an animal’s eyes and nurture compassion in the next generation.
Looking forward, our goals include expanding our program to encompass both younger and older age groups. To achieve this, we plan to collaborate with Mutt-i-grees and establish a presence in local elementary schools and after-school programs. Additionally, we aspire to connect with the Davis Arts Center to enhance our humane education with empathy arts, making it more inclusive for preschool children to express their emotions through creative activities.
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At Life of Kai: Compassion Connections, our mission is centered on fostering a deeper connection with your pets by truly understanding and embracing who they are. We are dedicated to empowering our canine clients and their guardians through an ethical and compassionate approach that prioritizes the well-being, both basic and emotional, of your furry friends.
As an ethical teacher and coach, we shift the focus from obedience to the development of essential life skills. This emphasis on life skills ensures that dogs can live harmoniously with their guardians, contributing to the creation and preservation of happy homes for both pets and their humans. We continue to offer a sliding scale for guardians with financial hardship. Our discounted virtual sessions encourage the guardians to take a more hands-on approach to teaching their companion pets and building a better and stronger human-animal bond. We believe in happy homes for pets and their humans and are committed to making a positive impact, inviting you to join us on a journey of understanding, compassion, and growth.
For training/coaching, reach us at "The Compassionate Dog Coach.” We work with rescues, fosters, and pet guardians.
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Connecting people who want to help with animals that need help can save many lives. The seed of this project started as an idea in 2013 to have veterinary technician students at junior colleges foster shelter dogs. Four years later, we were part of Colorado College students' effort to foster dogs for the local rescue. In 2020, we joined the Human-Animal Support Services (HASS) Foster Workgroup to learn how to implement the "Foster First" philosophy to reduce the housing of homeless dogs at shelters. We believe fostering gives these dogs a safe temporary home-based life to rebuild trust and flourish. Our long-term goal is to create a foster registry (NUZZLE) and to test the concept of team and short-term fostering - Canines in Colleges. NUZZLE and our "Canines in Colleges" projects are in the early design phase.
The Lucky Ones
My name was Yolo when I was lost running around the Yolo Bypass in Northern California. Many tried trapping to protect me from I-80 heavy traffic, but I eluded all attempts. I found my way to the other side of the bypass and was roaming around a residential neighborhood. A woman took me to a local shelter and contacted Life of Kai, who worked with a rescue to pull and foster me. Life of Kai taught me simple life skills. After many months I found my home. I am happy to report that I am no longer "Yolo." My new name is Kairos.
I was Yolo.
Our dad passed away suddenly when we were 10, and our mom wanted to relinquish us to the shelters. Keeping a promise made to our dad, a friend stepped in and hoped to find us a new home as a bonded pair. She found a rescue that took us in but insisting that we were to be adopted together made it difficult to re home us. After nine months, the rescue returned us to the friend, who was not prepared to keep us. Life of Kai helped set up a GoFundMe to build an outside home for us in the friend's backyard. We got to happily stay together and passed away in 2019. Find our story on Human-Animal Support Services (HASS) Facebook (3/2021).
Snowy and Dusty
An orchard in Bakersfield was my home for a year. Abandoned, I survived on my own until Danny @ the Safefurr Place rescued me in the spring of 2020. After four months of daily visits to earn my trust, his persistent and valiant effort paid off. My rescue (video) was featured on Dodo . Although my new life is better and safer than living alone, adjustment was challenging, and Danny asked for help. Life of Kai suggested for my comfort to be a priority and let me set the pace. In the beginning, Danny worked with me primarily at night when I felt most safe. With Danny doing the hard work and Life of Kai's coaching, it took six months for me to feel comfortable enough to engage with Danny and play with Howard and Mira during the daytime. Danny and I are now working on leashing me and bringing me inside. Rumor is I already found my home and am happy to have Danny in my life. You can watch my progress on Life of Kai’s YouTube channel.
My name is Mama
The adventure-loving pup from Taiwan, I am here to share my incredible journey from the bustling streets of Taipei to the land of stars and stripes.
I arrived in the arms of my first pawrents at six months old, ready to embark on a lifetime of tail-wagging adventures. Life was a Bay Area dream until the winds of change blew in when my pawrents decided to welcome a tiny hooman into the family. Suddenly, they thought they couldn't juggle me and the new addition.
Enter a family friend, a rescuer with a heart as big as the Golden Gate Bridge. She became my new mom, and for six pawsitively amazing months, I shared my life with a delightful mix of dogs and cats, creating a fur-tastic menagerie. Life was golden until the unexpected struck – my new mom had a catastrophic stroke, and things took a turn for the challenging.
With my dad battling terminal cancer and the future looking bleak, my furry family found themselves in a heart-wrenching situation. Fearing he couldn't manage the rescue alone, my dad made the tough decision to surrender us all to the shelter. My first-ever shelter experience was rough.
But here's where the heroes step in - Life of Kai and a friend of my mom took me from the uncertainty of the shelter and welcomed me into their fostering haven. Two fosters later, each teaching me more about love and resilience, I finally met my current pawrents.
Now, nestled in the warmth of their love, I've found my forever home. They get me quirks and all, showering me with the understanding and acceptance every pup dreams of. I'm the luckiest dog, and I owe it all to the rescuers and fosters who believed in me when things seemed ruff.
Let me remind you that lives like mine could take a different turn. For many pups, time in the shelter is a countdown, and the longer they stay, the harder it becomes to find a forever home. Here's to the unsung heroes – the rescuers, fosters, and my pawrents – who turn tales of hardship into stories of hope and love.
My name is Quinn
“No act of kindness, no matter how small,
is ever wasted.”
— Aesop
