Hello, RAGOM friends,

I am terribly sorry to report that Lucas (RAGOM #00-163), our 9 1/2 year old Golden Retriever, passed away June 6th, 2008. He had hemangiosarcoma that had begun in the spleen and had already metastasized throughout his liver by the time he began showing signs of illness a little over a week ago. We are so very sad. We miss him every second. Our 2 other dogs--Luke's buddies--have been looking for him. They sit waiting by the sliding glass door, expecting Luke to come in and head for his water dish. I feel the same way.

I wanted to express our gratitude to RAGOM for the 8 wonderful years we had with Lucas as an integral part of our family. RAGOM placed him with us in July of 2000. Despite his history of neglect, Lucas was truly a joy from the very start. He accompanied us on family vacations, loved hiking in the mountains, swimming, going for walks, riding in the car, rolling in snow, and (of course!) counter-surfing. Luke always made it very clear, however, that all he really wanted was to be with his people, no matter the activity or lack thereof. He had that classic Golden combination of intelligence, gentleness, and fun-loving goofiness, along with his own unique "spark" that made total strangers stop us on the street to pet him and call him a great dog.

They were right. He was a great dog.

The T Family
Iowa City, IA