Miko's Rescue Mission Inc.

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Miko's Rescue Mission Inc.

We rescue pitbulls with ‘behavioral issues’ from high-kill shelters across LA and San Bernardino Counties. Miko’s Rescue Mission: Save More Pitbulls!

We save the ones no one else is coming for, the dogs that just need to be given a chance.

01/27/2025

Did someone say SNOW DAY?!?!! ☃️❄️🌨️

01/19/2025

Thank you for our travel crates to have prepped in the event of an evacuation!! Plus several large bags of dog food & cans of wet food!! 👏❤️ THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

01/16/2025

We are safe from the fires, and I want to make sure I am fully prepared in the case of any type of evacuation or emergency (especially something that’s short-notice).

We are getting hardshell plastic travel crates sponsored by which I am so so grateful for!! 🙌

Now we need to get the rest of our Amazon Wishlist “Emergency Preparedness” items ordered or gifted to us— Shop Now link in bio & stories!!

Thank you so much for helping ensure we are prepared for an emergency so all the dogs can be transported safely! I’m the event of needing to evacuate, I’d have to go rent a U-Haul truck, so having everything else on-hand and ready to go is crucial in these situations. Thanks again❤️❤️❤️

Even if you can’t purchase an item, you can send an Amazon Gift Card in any amount, even $5 helps us reach our goal of getting these items purchased ASAP!

Amazon Wishlist Link in Bio! “Emergency Preparedness”

You can also donate directly via Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, or on our website!

PayPal/Venmo:
Zelle: 805-209-7820 or [email protected]
Website: MikosRescueMission.org

01/16/2025

Here are our ADOPTED DOGS who all found furever homes in 2024: Reno, Kai (fka John), Phoenix, and Cháto!🥳🤩

Also featured in this post is our sweet Guardian Angel boy Ant who passed away too soon. He is my furever baby and I have his ashes here at home with me🙏🏽

01/14/2025

Last but not least, these two!! Miss Riley Rue has a foster-to-adopt home lined up in Colorado, the timing for transport and funds and weather and life events has just not worked together lately, so she is staying with me until all things align and we can safely get her transported!

Muneca, oh Muni Muni… this girl is wonderful and a handful lol. She needs a very savvy handler with experience using humane training methods before I would ever consider allowing her to be fostered or adopted. Unfortunately, this is sometimes the reality with dogs who need more care, training, and someone who will stay on top of supervising their dog. She’s a great dog, and also very high energy, and has a tendency to bite when she is overstimulated. For the foreseeable future, Muneca is listed as “Unadoptable” and will be living with me longterm. I guess in a sense she will be my 5th dog lol. 😁

01/14/2025

These two babies I’m fostering on behalf of ! Athena and Kane are siblings from different litters and were neglected and have severe skin issues. They’ve been on meds and getting all the food and water they need to heal and recover! Soon they will be ready to head up to Canada where their rescue will help them begin a new life! ❤️

These dogs were saved through the efforts of , , and 🙏🏽

01/13/2025

Meet our Foster Dogs who are Available for Adoption!!!! (Will update caption shortly)

01/13/2025

Meet Baya, Sancho, and Abby aka Abigail! These 3 babies are my personal dogs as well as Miko!! All three were saved from Harbor Shelter in San Pedro.

Baya was fka Belle was in and out of the shelter a couple of times in her short 1 year of life when she was red-listed and set to die at the end of March 2024. I had been looking to adopt a 2nd dog because Miko was ready to regularly interact with a dog, and I wanted to be able to grow my skillset as a dog guardian and handler.

I knew since May 2023 that I planned to start “Miko’s Rescue Mission”, so fast forward to a year later and baby Baya was the first official dog we saved with help from and ! Baya got her freedom ride from and that’s how I met Marina too!

Sancho was completely unexpected as someone else ‘adopted’ him from the shelter with no plan and no intention of keeping him, he had been surrendered the month before for getting into a dog fight with other dogs in his old home, so he was going to be euthanized.

I decided to take him in under our rescue. He is somewhat mute (doesn’t really bark but is not deaf), and it was a perfect match for Miko who is sensitive to hearing dogs bark… that’s how the Brother Bears came to be!!! 🥰🥰

Then little miss Abby….I was made aware of her at the end of April 2024 but did not have the capacity to back her under our rescue. Then in May she was adopted for 4 days and then returned for not being cat-friendly and that fast-tracked her to the euthanasia list; myself & kept a close eye on her because we were desperate to save her sweet life. When her euth date arrived, I drove out there to save her, and of course I fell in love with her immediately. I waited for a month to ensure a good fit before making her my personal dog🙏🏽

My 4 babies are very wild in their own ways, which is partly why I knew it would be hard to place them into a home, but also they all fit in so well together—the two sissies are best friends to each other—Miko adores his sisters & bro—Sancho is scared of everything & everyone but is brave when Mama is around🥰

Next is the foster dogs! ➡️➡️➡️

01/13/2025

Next up, my babies, my Miko!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

When I adopted Miko in November 2022 from East Valley Shelter in Van Nuys, it was one month after I left an emotionally abusive relationship and had to leave my 2 American Bully dogs behind with my ex (my Royal and King). So I needed my own companion and the second I saw Miko’s face posted on IG from a volunteer’s page, I just knew he was my soul dog. I didn’t plan to adopt a dog that weekend, but I knew I wanted my own dog in the near future, so I adjusted and pivoted when I saw Miko’s pic and just knew he was my baby.

Adopting him led me on a wild journey of raising the most loving boy who has a lot of special needs. Miko had severe separation anxiety, sound sensitivity, and animal reactivity/dog selectiveness and those were all things I didn’t even know existed at the time—my previous dogs had no special behavioral needs so I was definitely in over my head when I adopted Miko.

I had to learn so many new skills and chose to utilize the training rationale and methodologies rooted in acknowledging Miko as a sentient being who deserves autonomy and compassion in his life. I quickly opted out of harsher training methods and began working with first on separation anxiety desensitization and then on reactivity. We have both come such a long way, and we of course have further to go! For now I am ‘okay’ where we’re at in managing everything, Miko is so resilient!! And he loves to be around his siblings (in a safe, structured, and closely-supervised manner)🙏🏽

Now head over to the next post to meet Miko’s 3 siblings, Baya, Sancho, and Abby aka Abigail! 🥰🥰🥰

01/13/2025

Hi there, thought I’d do a few posts for anyone new to introduce myself and our entire crew here at Miko’s Rescue Mission Inc.! We are a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Simi Valley, CA.

First off, my name is Crystal Cassese, I’m born and raised in sunny SoCal and from a tiny city named Moorpark out in Ventura County! I lived there my entire life up until the last couple of years. It’s a small tight-knit community and my family (parents/grandparents) moved into the area in the 1960s from San Antonio, Texas. My mom was 1 of 9 kids, she was 7th so younger than most of her siblings. That’s how I have such a large extended family!

I on the other hand am an only child! My dad passed away unexpectedly in January 2003 when I was 13, and my mom just passed away unexpectedly on December 27, 2024. I was so so close with my mom, I’m just so heartbroken I can’t even put it into words.

I’ve done a lot and experienced a lot in my life life so far—I have a Bachelors degree in Psychology from CIIS, and prior to that I studied exercise science and worked at Moorpark College in the Fitness Specialist program as a Professional Expert.

I’m a licensed and certified Massage Therapist since 2017 and have had my own small massage business on and off since then—currently my business is called Simi Valley Massage Therapy LLC! I travel to people’s homes to provide focused pain relief and ongoing support.

I also have another small online business called Warrior Woman LLC since 2019 and I do a little bit of everything— I’d say I mostly focus on supporting local small businesses and non-profits through admin support, business consulting, social media graphics, and soon I plan to focus more on providing copywriting services as well (like advertising).

I adopted my Miko in Nov 2022 and he inspired me to start our rescue!! In April 2024 we began saving dogs from the LA shelters and officially became a non-profit organization in May 2024! More to come on all the dogs saved in the next posts🥳

Thanks to all who has been here from the start of our journey on page to now helping us SAVE MORE PITBULLS!! 🥰❤️🙏🏽

01/11/2025

My mom’s obituary ❤️🙏🏽💔 You can order flowers to be delivered for the service by using the link. Her service will be next Thursday 1/16 from 5-8pm ❤️

https://www.perezfamilyfuneralhome.com/obituaries/rosalinda-cassese

01/10/2025

“🚨HOW TO SAFELY FOSTER DOGS DURING AN EMERGENCY SITUATION”🔥
Thank you to for quickly putting this short guide together for me last night! 🙏🏽

These are the basics! Please note: it is preferred to NOT introduce the foster dog to your dog immediately (if you choose to do so at some point, please ensure you are confident and comfortable with knowing how to break up a dog fight should you need to).

🚨🚨🚨PLEASE STEP UP TO FOSTER DOGS IN NEED OF SAFETY IN THIS CHAOS!!!!🚨🚨🚨

Miko’s Rescue Mission Inc. may be temporarily reopening limited intake to assist with backing dogs abandoned in boarding, but we need to have fosters lined up before we can make that decision. PLEASE SHARE! Fosters need to be somewhere in California, Arizona, or Nevada, thanks 🙏🏽

01/10/2025

01/09/2025

💔💔Hi there, I just gotta vent. We are safe from the fires 🙏🏽 and I have an emergency plan in place should we have to evacuate, but I think we’re okay. I’m keeping an eye on the fire map and checking often. Our emergency plan includes me having to rent a u-haul and then loading up and securing 11 crates, so I need to have adequate time to put the plan in motion should it come to that.

Things are hard for me right now, really hard. I’m so heartbroken from losing my mom unexpectedly, and then had trouble coming up with finances to pay for the funeral, so I’m not going to get to do the things I hoped to in order to have closure and peace in my heart. Money f***s things up.😭😭🤬🤬

I’ll never know why or how my mom died, she had just gotten sick with bronchitis, but she was found on the floor already passed away. This is going to absolutely destroy me to not know. Peace no longer exists in my life or in my heart.💔

If you’ve never lost someone close to you, or a parent, idk how to describe it. I know grief, I know pain, I know trauma and I know suffering, lord do I know suffering.

My dad died unexpectedly when I was 13. I had an ectopic pregnancy (miscarriage) at 26. I’ve been in mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive relationships. I’ve dealt with narcissistic abuse. I survived sexual assault, in**st, and I have c-ptsd and I’m autistic. I know life is hard and I know life will continue on.

The dogs are safe, I’m okay. But I’m in the middle of a midlife crisis at age 35 feeling like a failure because I’m not financially secure and I don’t have s**t figured out and we’re gonna have to move again at the end of the month and I’m upset that I feel all alone in this world even though I know I’m not.

But my mom was my everything, she used to say all we had was each other. Yeah I have extended family, but we were the only immediate family to each other. She was always there for me all of the time whenever I needed her. We talked or texted or saw each other at least once a week or would meet up for lunch when we could. She was my rock and I was hers. OH MOM 😭😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔💔

01/07/2025

Chato in his furever home 🥹🥰❤️ I’m so grateful he’s finally there safe and sound! He’s an east coast boy now and has never seen snow before haha ❄️

Thank you to everyone who helped us care for this guy over these last few months, I’m so happy he is finally home and part of a family after a rough life and 2 years in an out of shelters and the hoarding situation. Such a resilient boy—now time for rest and peace and joy and snuggles in bed for the rest of his life!! ❤️🥳❤️🤩❤️

01/03/2025

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and for reaching out. This week has been so tough. I’m so grateful for my Miko for being here to help me through all of this. I don’t really have much to say yet about my mom’s passing, just that getting funeral arrangements started is surreal. I’m so glad I have my family to help me navigate all of this because it’s a lot and so hard. 💔

We were able to get the rent paid, thank you to those who donated, we got up to $1k towards the rent and then a generous donor paid the rest. Now I need to get ahead of this next payment and fundraise $2285 by January 26th for our February rent! Please help if you can, I don’t have the mental capacity to be online and share and share right now. Please, donate if you can❤️🙌⬇️

Venmo/PayPal: Mikosrescuemission
Zelle (new way to donate!): 805-209-7820
Website: mikosrescuemission.org

All donations are tax-deductible! Thank you for supporting the rescue and me during this incredibly challenging time in my life. 🙏🏽

12/28/2024

Rest in Peace to my mom Rosalinda Cassese🙏🏽🪽💔

A pic of Miko with his Grammy 1 month after I adopted him (photo from Dec 2022). She loved him so much and Miko looooved his Grammy.

Today being at my uncle’s house (where my mom lived), Miko kept expecting to see his Grammy and it absolutely shattered my heart even more. How do you tell a dog their Grammy is gone?

I tried to explain it to him, let him sniff her belongings, and just had to ignore what he wanted because I couldn’t give it to him (seeing his Grammy).

He even held his p**p until we got home this evening, because I realize that I unintentionally used to tell him “go p**p and then you’ll see Grammy” whenever we’d meet up with her for lunch or go visit outside my uncle’s house.

He farted for hours today haha and I took him on at least 8 walks and I think every time he thought he would walk up to the house and he would finally see Grammy standing outside to greet him this time. 😭😭😭💔💔💔

He will definitely be attending the funeral so he will understand at that point, but I think he definitely understood something was wrong and very different today 💔🪽

12/15/2024

Cute yet deceiving 🤣😍😅🌙 our Muñeca aka Muni (Moony) aka Moon Child! She’s a wild one! And a wonderful, high-energy girl! LOOK AT HER 🥹😅🌙

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Simi Valley, CA
93065

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+18052056055

Website

http://mikosrescuemission.org/

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I’M BEGGING FOR YOUR HELP PLEASE 😭😭😭😭 ‼️🚨FULL TRANSPARENCY: We’re really struggling financially guys. These dogs need things that we cannot currently pay for 😭 Flea/Tick/Heartworm meds, transport costs, paid home boarding, our monthly rent and electricity bill, food/treats, toys, and more. I’m not working much right now and I also cannot afford to buy food for myself currently 😭💔 it’s not about me though, I’m doing okay and figuring it out day by day. But that is just an example of what kind of financial limit I am facing right now. PLEASE, I’M BEGGING YOU to set up a monthly recurring donation to help the pitties of Miko’s Rescue Mission Inc. on an ongoing basis! We are a 501c3 so your donations are tax-deductible! Even $5 a month makes a difference! Also, if you know of any businesses or corporations who may be interested in making a large financial contribution, please let me know or ask them to sponsor us! Thank you for your ongoing support of these beautiful pitbulls, I know you all love them as much as I do, and I’m just so grateful for your support to help keep a roof over their head and food in their bellies and help get them all the things they need to continue to thrive! To make a one-time donation, go to MikosRescueMission.org/donate To set up a monthly donation, please go to MikosRescueMission.org/become-a-monthly-donor You can also donate on Venmo or PayPal, our username is mikosrescuemission Another way to donate is on GoFundMe! We have a couple of fundraisers on there so far, one for Chato’s home boarding bill and one to help us replenish costs from Muni & Rocky’s ER visits from August (link in bio) THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. Your financial support is what allows us to keep going! 🙏🏽🥹🥰

Sweet Ant

WELCOME SWEET BOY ANT!!! So, it’s story time! I saw his post several days ago and he had been heavy on my heart, but we had no foster or way to realistically help. So I just let that feeling be, and thought ‘the universe will work it out if we could help’. Then yesterday AT 4PM our amazing foster reached out to me asking if she could foster and help out to save him. Now, he has been on my radar but we were not actively working on a plan—so a handful of people immediately jumped into action to begin networking and contacting others who would be willing to help! And we found people to help! And then this morning bright and early, our foster had a major emergency and has to go out of state for a week. Since we had already committed to saving Ant, we weren’t letting this deter us and we weren’t backing out now! Thankfully we had a back up plan, so sweet boy Ant will be staying at our facility and be in the care of me and Marina! This will give sweet boy some time to decompress, sleep a lot, and allow us to learn more about him and his specific needs or triggers.Then once our foster is back home, we will go from there! Depending on how Ant presents around other dogs, he will go with this foster, or he may end up staying at our facility and one of our other foster dogs will go there instead. Ultimately, whatever is going to be the most ideal arrangement for sweet boy is what we will do. And regardless of where he will stay longer term, Ant’s best interests are always the number 1 priority! It’s really important for me that our dogs are raised with kindness, compassion, and LOTS of autonomy (making their own choices) because they’ve gone through so much in their lives, so giving them as much freedom (safely) as possible is always top of mind! ❤️ So thank you for being here, for supporting our dogs, our new rescue, and helping us SAVE MORE PITBULLS!!m We ARE on an Intake Hold, but I am so grateful we were able to save Ant!!! 🥳 Please d

Hi! Just getting this up on Facebook! (We’re most active on Instagram) FREEDOM FRIDAY!!!! We are so excited to welcome Ant to Miko’s Rescue Mission!! He was one of the lucky ones spared at the shelter yesterday. He definitely had an angel looking out for him. We think Ant is an American bully or bully/pit mix…and he’s definitely 100% CUTE!! Ant is #11 for rescued dogs since starting the rescue in March. And 11 is our volunteer @julia.mckown @julia_voiceforanimals favorite number! Maybe you can donate $11, $111, or anything you want!! 🫶🏽 Ant does need to be neutered and get meds for his doggy cold, plus all of his other needs! 💸💸PLEASE DONATE TOWARDS ANT’S CARE: Venmo: crystalcassese (last 4# to confirm 6055) PayPal: cassese777 Pay.MikosRescueMission.org Apply to be a foster and enroll in @mikosrescuemission foster training program at www.mikosrescuemission.org and select the foster application. You can also apply to volunteer! Links in bio as well. We can’t save and care for dogs without your help. THANK YOU! #rescuedog #freedomfriday #savedfromdeathrow #shelterdog #resilience #americanbully #pitbull #pitbullrescue #bullybreeds #fostersneeded #volunteersneeded #fivedollarfriday #luckynumber11 #losangeles #sheltercrisis #adoptdontshop #fosterme #bullylove #pitbullsofinstagram #savemoredogs #savemorepitbulls

Miko's Rescue Mission Inc.

01/27/2025

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01/16/2025

01/16/2025

01/14/2025

01/14/2025

01/13/2025

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01/13/2025

01/13/2025

01/11/2025

01/10/2025

01/10/2025

01/09/2025

01/07/2025

01/03/2025

12/28/2024

12/15/2024

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