'Built a beautiful community': Paws and Stripes founder steps down after 14 years

After 14 years serving as founder and executive director at Paws and Stripes, Lindsey Kay has announced she is stepping down in May.

An Albuquerque-based veterans service organization, Paws and Stripes helps New Mexico veterans reintegrate into civilian roles and develop meaningful missions and goals within their lives as veterans.

“I’ve always known there would be a day to come to move on and sort of send the kid off to college and I know now’s the right time because Paws is the best it’s ever been and we just have the most amazing staff,” she said.

Paws and Stripes’ board of directors will begin the search for a new executive director after Kay officially steps down.

Kay founded Paws and Stripes not long after she moved to New Mexico in 2010. During this same period of time, Kay had a family member who had recently left the military and was struggling with several issues, including a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“(He) was really struggling with adjusting to being a civilian,” she said.

Kay, who had a working background in veterinary clinics and dog rescue, thought a dog would offer some comfort and decided to adopt a dog for her family member.

As time went on, Kay began to notice how a dog can not only give a veteran a sense of comfort but also assist them with readjustment to civilian life.

“I learned a lot about service dogs and what they can do for folks with different disabilities,” Kay said. “But there wasn’t a lot of available (resources or organizations) for individuals who had things like brain injuries or PTSD, those invisible disabilities.”

In addition to the lack of resources for veterans struggling with invisible disabilities, Kay noticed during her research that most veterans were having to pay out of pocket in order to get a service dog. According to the National Service Animal Registry, the estimated upfront cost of a service dog ranges from $15,000 to $30,000.

Seeing the need to provide more affordable access for veterans in need of service dogs, Kay founded and became the executive director of the nonprofit Paws and Stripes in 2010. Its mission was to provide free-of-charge service dogs trained to address veterans’ specific needs.

But it wasn’t only the veteran’s life who would be forever changed; also, the dogs’ as well. Utilizing her background in dog rescue, Kay decided to train shelter dogs —and in the process, save two lives at a time. With Paws and Stripes now founded and their mission in place, the work to train the dogs could now begin.

“I found some trainers in the community that I connected with and all of us started working to train the first dog that year,” Kay said.

As word of Paws and Stripes work started spreading throughout the community, Kay was contacted by several veterans who were interested in their work and possibly getting a dog of their own. Not even a full year into their first year of existence, Kay described Paws and Stripes as a “runaway train.”

The nonprofit was invited to attend as audience guests at the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” walked in the Veterans Day parade in New York City and had several people interested in writing books about their organization. In a short span of time, Paws and Stripes had grown beyond what Kay had ever envisioned.

“It was really bananas, this small idea that I had and was really interested in to use shelter dogs to help these veterans took off,” Kay said.

The next 14 years have seemingly flown by just as quickly. In that time, Paws and Stripes has continue to grow, moved from Rio Rancho to a bigger office space in Albuquerque and expanded its dog training and mental health support.

The nonprofit has also begun to receive federal funding, including the SSG Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant. Launched in 2022, the grant honors veteran Parker Gordon Fox, who died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 25 after serving in the Army. Paws and Stripes is the only veterans assistance organization in New Mexico to receive the $570,000 grant.

The grant allowed Paws and Stripes to begin offering programs with specialists in cognitive behavior therapy, a self-esteem workshop and a 12-week anger management group course, which were available to veterans, active duty personnel and family members.

With Paws and Stripes in as strong a position as it’s ever been, Kay began the process of creating a secession plan and stepping down as executive director last year. She leaves knowing Paws and Stripes is in prime position to continue offering service dog training and mental health support for veterans in need.

“Everyone is focused on making sure we keep Paws and Stripes legacy going on into perpetuity,” she said.

Kay said she’ll be completing a master degree in social work in the coming months and plans on using it to better the community that in turn made the work Paws and Stripes did possible.

“I’m walking away (from Paws and Stripes) cherishing the community,” Kay said. “From day one to today, Paws and Stripes has touched the lives of other people, sometimes for a moment or for years. Paws has built a beautiful community.”