Built by Those Who've
Been in the Shelter
Rescue Workflow grew out of Small Breed Rescue of Southern California, where it has run the rescue's own intake, medical, foster, and adoption work since the day the rescue opened — and still does, every day.
Mike Dowdell
Founder & CTO, Rescue Workflow · Vice President, Small Breed Rescue of Southern California
I have spent more than 25 years designing and building enterprise software, distributed systems, and cloud platforms, from early content delivery and streaming infrastructure at Akamai and Inktomi to today's cloud-native, AI-enabled applications. Fifteen of those years were at Blackbaud, as a Principal Software Engineer architecting the backend services, data platforms, and customer-facing applications that nonprofits, foundations, and schools run their fundraising, donor records, and financials on. Software that nonprofits depend on every day is the work I know best.
Michelle Meschko and I founded Small Breed Rescue of Southern California in 2019 out of a love for the animals the public was largely overlooking before the pandemic: small, behaviorally challenged dogs and exotic reptiles. Michelle brought a broad background in animal welfare operations from across the country. I brought the software architecture. That combination meant the rescue could hit the ground on day one with its own system instead of spreadsheets and paper.
Years of running the rescue on that system, and evolving it to support every animal type with shelter-style processes and procedures alongside real rescue practice, are what became Rescue Workflow. It is the software we use ourselves, released so other independent rescues can start with the same foundation.
LinkedIn →What We Do
Rescue Workflow is a web-based platform that helps animal rescue organizations run their entire operation in one place. It replaces spreadsheets, email chains, and paper intake forms with connected workflows that automate the steps between animal arrival and adoption outcome.
The platform is built for independent rescues and small shelters across the United States and Canada — from 2-person volunteer operations to multi-staff professional organizations — and was shaped by running one.
Every feature in Rescue Workflow maps to a real operational need: knowing which animals need medication tomorrow, reviewing adoption applications without losing track of anyone, generating a signed contract without drafting it from scratch, and filing an Asilomar report without exporting data into a spreadsheet first.
What We Build
- →Animal intake & tracking
- →Medical records & vaccination tracking
- →Foster self-service portal
- →Adoption application pipeline
- →Digital adoption contracts
- →Adopt-a-Pet syndication
- →Asilomar compliance reports
- →Volunteer shift scheduling
- →Kennel & location management
- →Data import from any system
Why We Built It
The tools built for large municipal shelters have always been expensive, complex, and designed for organizations with full-time IT staff. Independent rescues - which do enormous amounts of the lifesaving work in the United States - were left to manage with spreadsheets, shared inboxes, and paper forms.
After years of seeing this gap close to nothing, we built Rescue Workflow to close it. The goal was not to build another data management tool - it was to encode the best operational practices of top-tier shelters directly into the software, so that any rescue could start with them from day one, without needing years of experience to know they existed.
That is what makes Rescue Workflow different: it is not just a place to store records. It is a system that guides decisions, surfaces the right next action, and makes best-practice operations the default rather than the exception.
How We Approach the Work
Field-tested in a working rescue
Every workflow was built and refined by running Small Breed Rescue of Southern California on it, day in and day out - not designed in a conference room.
Shelter procedure, rescue practice
The platform encodes shelter-style processes and procedures, shaped by animal welfare operations experience from across the country, and adapted to how independent rescues actually run.
Self-guided from day one
No onboarding consultant required. Rescue Workflow guides proven practices as your team works, so a brand-new rescue starts with the same calm operational foundation as a 20-year organization.
Built for independence
Institutional shelter software has always been priced and designed for large municipal shelters. Rescue Workflow is built specifically for independent rescues - with pricing, workflows, and defaults that reflect how small teams actually operate.
Who Uses Rescue Workflow
Rescue Workflow is built for independent 501(c)(3) animal rescue organizations and small-to-mid-size private shelters across the United States and Canada. It is not designed for large municipal animal control facilities.
Our users include rescues that focus on dogs, cats, small animals, exotic species, and mixed-species care. Rescue Workflow supports this with an all-inclusive taxonomy system, because rescue is not just about cats and dogs; compassion spans all animals. Many are volunteer-run organizations with no paid staff. Others have small teams of 2-10 paid employees managing a high intake volume. The platform scales to fit both - the same features, the same data, the same workflows.
We are especially focused on rescues that are currently managing with spreadsheets or a combination of disconnected tools - and who are ready to bring those operations together into something that actually works as a system.
Ready to See It in Action?
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