End-of-life care for Luke

I first met Luke in 2015. I was 20. For those that don’t know, my dad was heavily disabled and was looking for a service dog. Given our living situation and my dad’s disabilities, it was imperative to find the right dog for him. For us. After a 13 hour trip to look at service dogs, My father was disqualified from the program because he was ‘too able bodied’. That was a few hours before we met Luke.

We weren’t planning on it, but ended up visiting a puppy breeder —just 35 minutes from our last stop. This puppy breeder had a ranch and a stable that they kept puppies in. There were like, a dozen puppies all running around. There was one that stood out. He was the biggest of every puppy by a large margin, but he was just sitting in the corner hoping we would come pet him. Apparently, this puppy was a recent reject from a local service program because he was just too dang friendly.

That’s when we met Luke.

My dad immediately knew that was gonna be our dog.

From 2015-2023, Luke and my dad were inseperable. They spent every waking (and sleeping) moment together. Endless days of hour long walks (with my dad's self-engineered recumbent tricycles), soup bones from the butcher, and couch cuddles. My late father, John Fite, found a scared puppy while looking for a service dog. You know, one of those like hyper impressive ‘i can open a jar of peanut butter but wont eat it’ dogs, but we found luke. And god damn they were the best dad/dog duo a son could ask for.

Unfortunately, nature takes it course. My father, John, died in July of 2023. Since then, I’ve been devoting everything i can to take care of Luke. Not only as a dog, or a pet, but as the last living part of my Dad. I took Luke in for a routine veterinary visit 03-08-2025. It was a Sunday.

He has a late stage cancer, a thyroid tumor, it’s spread to his lungs and brain. He is having good days as of writing this, but soon (very soon, according to the vet) his good days will end.

So to quote my father, “we will enjoy the good days until they are no longer good”

With the late stage cancer diagnosis I've run through a lot of money on treatments and need your help. As we transition luke to hospice and end of life care, you'll help give his last days with my family and I the dignity of the life he led for me and my dad. Any funds exceeding our initial goal will go towards auto repairs so i can take Luke out on his favorite journeys to his favorite places in his absolute favorite, car rides.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your help. Much love to all of you.