About Lutsen

Barbra Streisand said it best: “Hello, gorgeous!” Lutsen was a golden retriever — an unbelievable rescue dog who sat on our laps and changed our lives forever. Some dogs are born gorgeous; others have gorgeousness thrust upon them. For Lutsen Linder, it was both.

When he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, we went searching for the most advanced therapies anywhere — immunotherapy, transplant modalities, anything with real potential. Family members who are CSU-trained veterinarians connected us with Colorado State University’s Flint Animal Cancer Center, where the pathology team identified his cancer and got him on treatment fast. We weren’t local, but when your dog is that good-looking, you’ll cross state lines.

The Science

Along the way, a few things became painfully clear: canine leukemia is staggeringly under-researched, yet its biological parallels to human leukemia mean real progress is possible. The bottleneck is funding. So we stopped just looking for answers and decided to be part of creating them.

To start the work, the fund partnered with Dr. Adam Harris at Colorado State University’s Flint Animal Cancer Center, supporting his research in canine acute leukemia — new treatments and expanded hope for dogs facing this disease. More areas of research to come.

We believe dogs are the best of us. Lutsen especially. If something good can come from losing him, this is a start.