No K-9 Left Behind
Army veteran and former Calexican saves dogs from Ukraine, creates K-9 rehab, training camp
SAN DIEGO COUNTY – Chris Jimenez, a U.S. Army veteran originally from Brawley and an avid dog lover, runs a sanctuary for more than two dozen dogs at K9 Connect – formerly known as Rhaja’s Rescue – of dogs he himself rescued from Ukraine.
Jimenez, who was born in Brawley but raised in Calexico, said the idea for a sanctuary began when he received calls from his contacts in Ukraine when the war kicked off. They were drafted into the war and had to leave their dogs behind.
“At that point, I had four dogs in Kyiv, so I made the decision to go in … and evacuate my own dogs,” he said.
Jimenez says he’s been a dog lover and owner all his life, and that was the reason he rescued all the dogs from Ukraine. When he arrived, he saw the dogs living in enclosures and he was told they were unable to be cared for, but “the Russian soldiers were killing dogs that were giving away their position, so
… I couldn’t leave them behind,” he said.
There were 35 other dogs left behind due to the war, and he didn’t want to leave them, so he took them all.
Jimenez’s company, K9 Connect, is about a half hour out from Ocotillo on a large piece of land near Shelter Valley, California, where he built kennels for each dog and, after some rehabilitation, makes sure they are properly cared for. His goal is to find a place for every dog, whether it’s working for the police, or adopted out to a loving home.
Jimenez said the birth of Rhaja’s Rescue stemmed from the previous encounter with the war in Ukraine where he started his company, K9 Connect. It is a licensed K-9 training company by the Drug Enforcement Association (DEA) and federal government. It specializes in placing dogs in the working environment, from police work to personal protection.
It took Jimenez more than four to five months, time spend and his own money to evacuate the dogs from Kyiv.
He “ended up in Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, and I found shelter in an abandoned animal facility in Poland.” There, he raised funds to pay for an airplane to fly him and the dogs back to the U.S.
Jimenez emphasized he knew “it was going to be rough” when he decided to take on the dogs.
Each dog had to be purchased from the person who could no longer care for them, “so that cost me $80,000 just to possess the dogs,” Jimenez said. So far, he’s sent $16,000.
In total and back home, he says he’s spent upwards of $100 dollars to bring the dogs back, build kennels, have food and water, solar panels, classrooms, and up-todate medical records. He says everything is difficult to maintain while he’s not working, but was able to tap into his savings and receive help from others.
Jimenez said half of the dogs are considered ‘working K-9s,’ meaning they are “trained for narcotics detection, explosive detection, search and rescue, patrol, and/ or personal protection.”
The other half Jimenez deems as retired and ready to be adopted out to a normal home because they “only ask to play fetch” and seek affection.
“I wouldn’t say we specialize in pet dogs, but that has become the transition given the cards we were dealt with in the war in Ukraine,” Jimenez said.
He said there are some dogs that are very energetic and require a special handler and home.