# Then came Luke!!!!



## anotherusername (Jan 6, 2017)

I am new to the forum and I am making this post with a heavy heart and mixed emotions. 

A dog has been in my life as well as my other-half's since we were children. In fact nobody from my household has memories of life without a family dog for any span of time. A dog is as much a part of our lives as any other every day item that we all take for granted. Heck, we assume that a dog is as much a part of living as food, water and air!!!

Our families world was turned upside-down with the sudden illness (the "C" word) and death of our most loved family member Luke. 

Luke was like no other dog, no other dog that any of us had growing up and like no other dog that we have had since. When I say that, I do not say it lightly, we have had many of fantastic, loved and loving dogs. Luke was just that special. 

Luke was almost 11 when he past. He was our first and only Golden. We were always the family who accepted and loved dogs that chose us as their family. Labs, Shepherds and every other breed had found us, except for a Golden.

One day after losing the sweetest black lab ever (also cancer), we found ourselves without a family dog. It was the first time in any of our lives there was not a family dog in our lives. 

A month or so later no strays had come to claim us and then one day my "smarter half" completely out of character announced "I think I want another Lab OR maybe even a Golden Retriever". Well you didn't have to ask me twice, I went to work, I located local breeders of both and waited for her to make her decision. A day or so later she announced "I want a black lab"....I proudly said "I already found some pups that are ready for their forever home, get in the truck, LET'S GO GET ONE!". 

When we got there I was shocked, not by the puppies, they were cute, as you would expect, I was shocked that my other half, the lover of everything cute and furry, she looked at me and said "tell them that we are not ready yet, I'm ready to go". We got in the truck and she saw the disappointment on my face and she calmly said " weren't they adorable?".....My obvious answer was "yes, why are we leaving then?" Her reply, "it just didn't feel right, none of them picked us!". Well, like I said earlier... "my smarter-half"... and I couldn't argue with that astute observation!!!

Driving home, both of us bummed and silent, suddenly she blurts out "maybe we should get a Golden". I grab the cell phone and dialed up the breeder from my notes, she answers, I ask "where are you located and do you mind if we stop by?" She tells me to get off at exit 123..... We look up and WHAT? we are at exit 123!!! We're off, when we get there we were met by the breeder who was not expecting customers this day, we were more than pleased to see what a beautiful property she had, the entire property was clean and well maintained. Then she takes us to the barn where the puppies were kept and again we were impressed. This is where I'd want to be if I were a puppy, it was more like a daycare/nursery!

We are now outside the barn and the girl brings out the most beautiful, playful, happy Golden puppies that one could ever imagine......Then comes the not so good news, they are not ready to leave yet and they all have families waiting for them! Strike two!!!!

All of a sudden, as God would have it, a larger puppy comes darting around the corner, he was on a mission, completely ignoring the other puppies and everyone else. He is running back and forth between the two of us...the two of us are absolutely digging this little guy and he is not about to let either of us do anything other than give him our undivided attention. ..... We are very much familiar with what's happening here, this puppy has chosen us to be his new family. He would not leave us alone and did not want anything to do with anyone or anything else but the two of us. There simply would be no leaving without this little guy, he wasn't having it!!!! We would not have it either.

We ask the girl what the story is with him? She said that he was from a previous litter and for some reason the girl who bought him had decided she wanted another puppy instead. Whatever the case, we were blessed that day, and blessed for the following 10 and a half years. Luke was truly the most amazing, smart, handsome, happy and healthy friend and family member that ANYONE would ever pray for. He was a working dog, he worked effortlessly, his job was to make sure his family was happy every minute of every day . This was a job that he took very seriously and he never let us down all the way to the end, never once did he fail. 

There are no words that can ever express how much that dog did for our entire family. Through the toughest of times he was the one constant that everyone in our family counted on to help them through a bad day, loss of a loved one or anything else that might have brought us down. Luke would never fail to show up at your worst moment and do his job. With a nudge of a wet nose, a head on the lap, or just a sigh followed by a wag of the tail and a smile.....and my favorite, when all else was failing he would let out one of the loudest burps a dog could ever create, knowing that would get a big laugh from me and a giant "LUCAS!" and a smile from momma! !!

Luke was known as the "Privileged One" in our family, he was definitely one of us, more than any dog in he past or others that have followed. The truth be told, we only boarded him once as a puppy, it's impossible to explain but he let us know that he was not happy about it! From that time on he never spent the night away from someone from the family. On family vacations where he could not be left with one of us, Luke and I would leave a day or so early and drive to the city where the rest of the family flew into. We always said that he was a human trapped in a furry body, he was the best of all things living wrapped in a beautiful golden body. 

That dog will be forever missed but never forgotten.

Thanks for providing such a great website and a place for me to post about a very special friend.


----------



## Pilgrim123 (Jul 26, 2014)

I am so very sorry to read of the loss of your special Luke. He sounds as if he was an amazing member of your family. And I agree with you - goldens are "the best of all things living wrapped in a beautiful golden body."


----------



## Siandvm (Jun 22, 2016)

What a moving tribute to a special, loving (and handsome) friend!


----------



## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Luke*

I am SO SORRY for your loss of a beautiful boy!
My Smooch and Snobear will watch over him.
I sent you a pm so you can email me and I can add him to the Rainbow Bridge List.
Your tribute is just beautiful and they sure DO PICK us!


----------



## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

What a wonderful tribute to your boy Luke. It made me teary...He was so stunning. And you could tell he was happy. Thank you for giving him a good life.


----------



## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful Luke. He sounds so much like my Austin who I lost 7 months ago at the age of 7.5 years. He even looks like him. It's very obvious how much Luke was loved!!


----------



## gold4me (Mar 12, 2006)

What a beautiful story for a stunning boy. I am so sorry for your loss.


----------



## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

I'm so sorry for your loss. The pain can feel like it will never end. He looked like such a lovely boy. I'm glad you found the forum, even though it was under sad circumstances.


----------



## anotherusername (Jan 6, 2017)

Thank you all for the warm sentiments. 

What a great community where so many people have like interests and they can come and share information as well as the highs and lows we all go through eventually. 

We will forever miss our beloved Luke. We will consider ourselves once again blessed to have in our lives a Golden with a fraction of his traits. The bar was definitely raised when Luke entered our lives.

Thanks again everyone! !!!


----------



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I'm so sorry for your loss of Luke, what a beautiful boy he was. 
What a very special dog he was, enjoyed his story.


----------



## Neeko13 (Jul 10, 2010)

What a wonderful story of your boy Luke!!! Loved every word of it....sorry for your loss, sounds like he brought you much joy!!!!!thanks for sharing...


----------



## anotherusername (Jan 6, 2017)

Thanks y'all. 

I am so happy that I made this post to share how so very special Luke was to us. Thanks to everyone who commented as well those who sent me PM's.

I am happy to say that we have found a beautiful baby girl to fill the Golden void in our home. 

Introducing Ruby!!!!!




























.
.
.


..........and in a seemingly amazing story and almost more unlikely and bizarre story as how Luke choose us our family was blessed with a boy as well ....... Ruby's brother .........and the story is so eerily familiar that my other half has named him LJ (Luke Jr) she is convinced that Luke has found his way back home......the story will follow.


LJ and Ruby.....


----------



## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Ruby and LJ*

I have no doubt that Luke sent you Ruby and LJ. Can't wait to hear the story!!
Your pictures make me smile!0:grin2:


----------



## joro32000 (Feb 25, 2017)

Beautiful story about Luke, made me cry. I am sitting in the office and people came asking what is wrong. Luke was very handsome.


----------



## swishywagga (Nov 13, 2012)

I am so very sorry for the loss of your precious Luke, it's a beautiful tribute.


----------



## Neeko13 (Jul 10, 2010)

Welcome to Ruby & LJ...cant wait to watch them grow.... Congratulations!!!!!


----------



## SandyK (Mar 20, 2011)

Just seeing this. I am so very sorry for your loss of Luke. Beautiful story about him and how he chose you! He will definatley live in your hearts forever!! Congrats on Ruby and LJ!! They are very cute and I can't wait to see more pictures as they grow.:grin2:


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

First of all, I am so very sorry for the loss of you most handsome Luke. It hurts so bad when we lose these dedicated, loving family members. Like you, there has rarely been a time in my life when there was no dogs. My dad --the entire community in fact--were quail hunters and my Dad always had English Setters and or Pointers. I got my first dog, an English Setter puppy for my 11th birthday back in 1956...choosing her over a watch. I lost her to distemper.


Thru the 61 years since, I have been owned by many English Setters, 2 Irish Setters, 2 Great Pyrenees and 6 golden retrievers. I came to this forum back in Sept. 2005 when it was new. I had lost my beautiful golden boy, Hunter, to ProHeart6 and was asked to come here to tell and warn others.


Since that time the wonder folks on this forum has been me thru the loss of golden retrievers Buck, KayCee Honey and Sophie (last Oct.) and one of the Pyrenees, Shaggy and our 17 year old cat, Pippi. It is such a grand thing to be able to come and talk about our dogs and post pictures and know that every single person here understands your grief.. 


We only have one dog now, a 10 year old Great Pyrenees with liver disease and we know we will nto have him much longer and then we will try to foster "unadoptable" dog, one with medical trouble or so old others don't want him/her. We feel we are to old to take on another dog, and truly can't afford such high vet bills. We willpay as much as we can, but we know the rescues help out. Our Pyr that we lost to hemangiosarcoma was a recue, he was blind and nobody wanted him. We adopted him. We looked at so many big healthy dogs, but kept coming back to this stunted blind boy and chose him. He was an awesome dog despite having been mistreated and abuse for 5 years.


You new pair are adorable and even tho they will never replace Luke, your hearts will love them just as much. I know this from year and years of losing much loved dogs and bringing another into my heart.


----------



## CashStringer (Aug 17, 2015)

Your story about Luke is so sweet .... and makes me want to run home and wrap my arms around my two golden boys (given the mountain of work in my inbox, I don't think my boss would appreciate that very much)! Congrats on the two newest additions to your family and wishing you a lifetime of sweet memories together!!


----------



## whemtp (Oct 18, 2009)

Sorry for your loss. You are absolutely spot on when you say they are part of the family. Thanks for sharing his story.


----------

