The organization was founded by Pali Boucher, daughter of a hippie mother and Paul Boucher, a program director of San Francisco radio station KSAN (formerly "Jive 95"; now 107.7, "the Bone").[3][4] Pali is an HIV victim and former foster child and drug addict whose mother died when she was ten.[5] After being homeless for more than ten years, she adopted an abandoned coonhound puppy from the local dog pound. She named him Leadbelly[5][6] and lived with him on the street for several more years. After spending six months in jail[7] she then entered the Good Shepherd Gracenter,[6] a women's residential recovery program run by the Roman Catholic order, the Good Shepherd Sisters.[8][9] She credits the program and her dog with saving her life.[10]
In the late 1990s, Boucher began working for Hopalong Animal Rescue, based in Oakland, California.[6] In 2000, while she was a client at the SF/SPCA Animal Hospital, she inspired her veterinarian, Dr. Ilana Strubel, to found Veterinary Street Outreach Services (VET SOS), a Project of the San Francisco Community Clinic Consoritum's Street Outreach Services Program, a private not-for-profit human healthcare agency, where Pali had received care while homeless. VET SOS is mobile clinic that helps homeless people who are unable to care for their pets.[11]
In 2001, the year after Leadbelly's death, she started Rocket Dog Rescue and won a Points of Light award for volunteerism.[10] She claims to have rescued 150 dogs in the first year.[10] In 2006, the organization was profiled on Discovery's Animal Planetnetwork in a one-hour documentary, Rocket Dogs.[12] By 2007, the organization had saved approximately 3,000 animals, and was spending $150,000 per year of donated funds on veterinary bills for sick animals.[5]
In December 2007, Boucher's home in Bernal Heights burned in a fire, making her homeless once again and killing three dogs, a parrot, and a pigeon for which she was caring.[5][13][14] The group has housed most of their dogs in foster homes,[15] and an emergency fund was proposed.[16]
In 2014, Rocket Dog Rescue opened its Urban Sanctuary and Adoption Center in East Oakland.[17] In 2017, Boucher and Rocket Dog Rescue were featured in an episode of Cesar Millan's TV series Dog Nation.[18][19]
