A local nonprofit is celebrating 30 years of success in realizing its vision of giving displaced dogs a better life. Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota (RAGOM), an all-volunteer organization based in Minnetonka, rescues displaced, abused, neglected and unwanted golden retrievers and golden retriever mixes, and locates permanent homes for them.
The story starts in 1985, with just one dog, a homeless golden retriever whose time was up at a shelter. RAGOM founders Hank and Jane Nygaard took the dog in, got her spayed and vaccinated, and found her a new home. After the first golden, there always seemed to be another, then another, that needed help in finding a forever family. So, by chance and by need, Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota was born, says Stephanie Perri, RAGOM manager of marketing and communications. “From that one opportunity to give a beautiful dog a golden life,” she says, “we have built an organization that, in 30 years, has seen thousands of people come together to help [more than 6,000] dogs.”
Indeed, RAGOM has grown to become the second-largest golden retriever rescue organization in the nation, “with extensive resources that go above and beyond other rescues,” says Perri. RAGOM offers full veterinary care, home visits, foster families for waiting dogs, updated blog posts on the dogs and educational services for the community. Its robust foster system, rather than a shelter system, provides loving homes where dogs are fed, groomed and socialized until they are matched with an approved adoptive family.
What really sets RAGOM apart, says Perri, is their dedication to ensuring that every dog they take in is supported throughout its entire lifetime. They never turn a dog away due to medical needs, caring for it until it is healthy enough to be adopted. They accept challenging dogs, and dogs from outside their standard adoption territory of Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and parts of western Wisconsin.
One of many success stories is that of Miele, one of 11 pups born in October 2014 to Bonnie, a golden mix found running along a highway in Nebraska. Miele was adopted by Tamara Prato and her family, who had met RAGOM volunteers and dogs at a local event. The Pratos, who live in Lino Lakes, began the process by checking the RAGOM website for available dogs. “I became slightly obsessed with the website,” admits Prato, “looking daily to see if there were any new dogs up for adoption.” She filled out the online application, and RAGOM followed up first with a phone call, then a two-hour home visit to learn more about the family. Once the Pratos were approved, they were assigned a placement advisor to guide their adoption process.
In December 2014, the family drove three hours to meet Miele, then 10 weeks old. They fell in love with her immediately, and confirmed their decision the next day. “RAGOM is a fantastic organization,” Prato says, “and I would recommend them to anyone looking to adopt.”
RAGOM now enters a new era with a dedicated effort to rescue more golden retrievers and find them loving families. “Once you see the joy these dogs can bring to your home,” says Perri, “you may be asking yourself who rescued whom.”
