Rocky Kanaka says he owes his life to a boxer named Flip, a rescued dog with no medical training who rushed into the room and jammed his nose against Kanaka's knee moments before a stroke hit. That encounter, years ago, set off a chain of events that is now reshaping a stretch of farmland in Oceanside into a dog rescue village built in Flip's memory.
Kanaka, who was born in Hawaii and raised in the Midwest, recalled the moment in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “My best friend Flip came running in, upset, jamming his nose into my knee.” He said the behavior tipped him off that something was wrong, giving him time to alert his wife, Kelly, and get emergency help before the stroke fully set in. “Flip wasn't trained for this,” Kanaka told the paper, noting the dog had no formal service-dog background.
Kanaka said the recovery that followed was not instant. “Six months of rehab, I'm okay and stronger than ever,” he told the Los Angeles Times. The episode became the emotional center of a life already built around dog rescue, and it's now driving a new project that Kanaka and his family hope will change how shelter dogs get a second chance.
A Crated Boxer Who Became a Foster Mentor
Flip's own story started rough. Per the Los Angeles Times interview, Kanaka rescued him after a breeder couldn't sell him and kept him locked in a crate for months. Shortly after Kanaka brought him home, Flip was diagnosed with distemper; Kanaka has written that he decided to give the dog a chance anyway, and Flip survived with round-the-clock care, according to a post on rockykanaka.com.
From there, Flip became something of a house fixture, helping with the steady rotation of foster dogs that moved through the family's home, the same post recounts. Later in life, after retiring from that role, Flip was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, in his jaw. He eventually received hospice care at home, and the family arranged for a veterinarian to come to the house when it was time to say goodbye, Kanaka wrote.
Nearly Two Decades in Dog Rescue
Kanaka's rescue work predates Flip by years. He launched The Dog Bakery at the original Los Angeles Farmers Market and began hosting adoption days there, pulling dogs from shelters and working to place them in homes, he told the Los Angeles Times. The Dog Bakery has since expanded to three additional locations. “That was about 17 years ago, and I've been working at it ever since,” Kanaka said.
Kanaka has also captured Flip's rescue work on video over the years and now hosts the YouTube series Sitting with Dogs, building an audience the Los Angeles Times interview describes as more than 5.6 million YouTube subscribers. He is also the Emmy-nominated host of the Netflix series Save Our Shelter. Kanaka told the paper that platforms like these matter because they let advocates act fast: “With social media, we can instantly advocate for them.” He added that the ability to share a dog's story online gives people who can't foster or adopt another way to help.
Flip Farms Takes Shape in Oceanside
Kanaka and Kelly relocated to Oceanside, where the family is now developing Flip Farms, described on his site as a working coffee farm and rehabilitation space for traumatized shelter dogs. Per the Los Angeles Times, Kanaka calls it simply a coffee farm in Southern California where his team rehabilitates dogs physically and mentally. The project is designed as a roughly 50-acre dog-rescue village, built in Flip's honor.
The first dog to arrive at the farm was Bean, a puppy with a badly broken leg, according to a post on rockykanaka.com. Another dog, Pumpkin, needed a full year of patient, mental rehabilitation just to learn to trust people again, the same post notes. Kanaka has said supporters who bought Flip Coffee helped cover part of the cost of Bean's recovery, and that coffee purchases are intended to help fund the broader rehabilitation work going forward.
Tiny Homes, a Farm Hotel, and an Open-Door Policy
The planned village includes tiny homes for foster dogs, a boutique farm hotel with a rooftop garden, and a farm-to-table restaurant, according to rockykanaka.com. The site is also meant to let visitors stay on location and help rehabilitate a foster dog during their trip. Kanaka has said the farm's purpose, at its core, is to rehabilitate rescue dogs, and that the surrounding community will be welcomed there. Flip Farms is aiming to open to the public by the end of 2026, a stated goal according to Kanaka.
Kanaka also pointed to broader strain on the shelter system driving the urgency behind projects like this one. “Shelters right now are so full because people are struggling to afford pets,” he told the Los Angeles Times, pointing to rising veterinary costs and cuts to spay-and-neuter programs. Separately, a study examining Facebook posts from 13 U.S. animal shelters, published in the journal Animals and reviewed via a study hosted on PMC, looked at how shelters use social media to advertise adoptable animals, underscoring the role Kanaka says platforms play in getting dogs noticed.
