Keifer

We have all experienced loss in our lives, some of which affects each of us more than another. This is how I felt in July of 2006 at the loss of my beloved Copper, a redbone coonhound of 17 years. I had lost pets before, some had been with me longer than Copper, but she was special to me, and my heart was seriously broken this time. No way was I ready to even think about adding to our household permanently.

My heart felt icy at the thought of it, but without her, our house was much too empty with only one beagle. That is one reason we decided to apply to foster for BONES. Once our application was approved, we couldn't wait for our first foster, so my teenage son and I drove 4 hours to Maine to pick up our first foster from a shelter. Within the next 6 weeks, three fosters came and two went. The third foster was Keifer. When he had been with us about two weeks, he went to a family for a foster to adopt. Within a week, he was back in our home - the foster to adopt had failed. Another foster came shortly thereafter, and now our house had three beagles. Very soon, we were back to two; the other foster had been adopted. It was just our beagle Prince, and Keifer once more. Christmas and the New Year came and went, and still Keifer remained. By the time he had been with us for 6 months, my husband and our teenage son, both knew he was meant to stay. One evening as I came home from work, they met me at the door and told me "We think you need to adopt Keifer." "He makes you happy again" they said. "Happier than you have been in months." (They meant since Copper.) As I stood there absorbing what they were saying, I realized that they were right.

My broken heart had healed much sooner than I had ever imagined, the icy feeling had melted away - all because of one very happy-go-lucky brown and white beagle with golden eyes and a lust for life. While the week he was gone to the failed foster to adopt home may not have been the best experience for Keifer, I will always be grateful that it did fail. It brought Keifer back to us, where he belonged all along. I just had not been ready to see it until now, and I am grateful to BONES for allowing us to adopt Keifer and make him a forever part of my family. We continue to foster, but now we have two of our own plus fosters.

The house is definitely not empty anymore!

Jeanne Faircloth March 2007

Bluegill

Hello, I just wanted to send a note and thank everyone involved in bringing Blue home. We are so thrilled to have her. She has been so fantastic. She is the best dog that I have ever seen and I am so happy that she is ours.

The transition couldn't have been better. She has been so easy, good and seems happy with us.

BONES has been so great to work with. You really impressed us with your volunteers. Its such a great organization and we thank you so much!!

Coreen, Dave, Sophia and Blue!

Ruthie (Oscar too!)

Hi, I ' m Ruthie! That ' s me, the one on the right, with my beagle brother Oscar. I was adopted in November 2006 by my new family and things have been just great! It took me a while to teach Oscar who ' s boss, but now that he understands that I am in charge we are getting along famously. We love to chase each other, play together and snuggle up for naps. We especially like singing duets at the top of our lungs in the yard and greeting all the neighbors who walk by. I also like to chase the two cats around the house. My forever home has lots of rooms to explore and lots of comfy furniture to sleep on. I especially like burrowing under the covers at night with my human mom and dad and looking for interesting places to bury my chew toys and bones.

From The Pike/Miller family: We just love this little girl so much!! Ruthie has the sweetest, happiest, most loving temperament. She talks to us all the time and especially loves to sing loud greetings of hello when we come home from work and school. She will jump right up on our laps for hugs and smother us with kisses whenever she sees the opportunity. Ruthie is the perfect addition to our active household and we are all madly in love with her. Thanks to B.O.N.E.S. for bringing Ruthie to us and for all the great work you do.

Lola

I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going here. Lola and Casey are becoming fast friends. They have their routine of wake up, eat, go for a walk, and then wrestle until it's time for me to go to work. When my son comes home it's another walk and then more wrestling until one gives up and needs a nap.

I took them both to the dog park Wednesday morning and I'm guessing it was Lola's first time in that kind of environment. She was so funny. Casey ran off to play with the other dogs while Lola desperately tried to find the exit. She eventually gave up that notion and instead ran up my leg into my arms. She must have been in need of some security. Needless to say that was definitely the bonding day for me and her. She realized I would protect her and I got a bath of kisses to not put her down. Well, we spent probably no more than five minutes there so Lola wouldn't get to nervous. It was kind of comical since she dominates Casey at home and seems so fearless, but around so many strange dogs she became timid and quiet.

 Finding comfort and family is the best gift we could give her.

 Jen, Jasen, Gabby, Jon, Prince Casey, and Princess Lola

Harley ! (now Charlie)

Why would anyone have let Harley the older beagle that BONES "had" for adoption go to be adopted? I adopted him, he has fit right in with my two almost 15 year old girls, was on the couch with my husband and the two cats and the girls tonight in total harmony. When they first met him a few days ago there was a click. He goes to the door to go out.....he's kind to my cats, loves my very senior beagles & they love him, rides in my truck and loves it...likes the horses. Watched a deer in our pasture tonight in total awe. We all went for a walk and instead of walking behind us he walked right with my senior beagles doing that sniffawalk.. His confidence is better in one lesson with being in a family and sensing he is here to stay. My husband was on the couch with him talking to him and rubbing his ears the dog followed him around the rest of the right. My girls are too confident they just laid around like a couple of lazy bones. Harley is now Charlie and as we call him Charlie and his two angels and it's like he's always been here!

Here's a newer picture of Charlie.  We just love him. This photo shows him infront of his barn.  He's adjusting well and just about out of his shell. He loves my Pebbles beagle and Brandy too!! I am SO for adopting a senior animal! --- Caroline

Spike

Well, we are all SO HAPPY with Spike!  I can not even BEGIN to tell you how well he has fit into our family.  He and my other female beagle look like a little old couple together.  They are hysterical.  They tear around the yard together, sleep together, beg for treats together....we often say, how could someone have given up such a wonderful dog????
We absolutely love him .... And I know he is very, very happy with us.  
We walk every morning at 5:00-5:30 a.m., all four dogs...so that they can all be off leashes and run...we walk about 3/10's mile to the beach, cruise down the beach about a football field in length and then walk back....they know the routine and just make their way, all four of them sniffing at everything. They have quite the life!

He gets along fine with the horses...we have three and comes out every morning and night while I do my chores.   He is a wonderful snuggler, too!  and he has this great spot between his eyes to receive a kiss...he is just a mush.... He has a number of nicknames such as :  Spike-a-dilly-do, Spike Meister, ‘Dilly, ...
What more can I say?   If you run across another like him...call me!  I would much rather adopt an older dog than a Pup

Debbi D

Chloe

Chloe is enjoying life in Fremont, NH !  We took Chloe home from Maine the last weekend in October, 2006.  Since that day, she has become best of friends with Madison (our 2 year old beagle) and Pawz (our 4 year old cat).  Chloe love the outdoors - she would stay outside all day, every day if she could.  She has learned to love going for walks, although at first she was very hesitant (she did not like the leash). 

We enjoy Chloe so much, and are thankful that she is in our lives.  Life with two beagles is so rewarding, and we now can not remember what life was like without Chloe!  Thank you so much to B.O.N.E.S. for allowing us to take Chloe into our lives and our hearts!

Dave and Catherine Twiss

Roscoe

Yep, Roscoe has certainly wormed his way into our hearts. As Patrick said this afternoon, "If you set out to create a cute Beagle, you couldn't do any better than Roscoe!" This may be a case of a picture being worth a thousand words. Soon after I took the first one, they adjusted their spots on the blanket so that Roscoe was curled up closer to Reggie and was resting his head on Reggie's back!

Kathy & Patrick

Tess

Well believe it or not it only took about 24-36 hours before both Milo and Tess found their ground. I still think Milo is the alpha male but they play running up and down the stairs and wrestle so much, I think Milo may need to lose some significant weight to keep up with her new sister.

As you can see from the photos, everyone lovesTess and whatever blanket couch or bed she finds, especially one with people there too are her best places.

The one humorist thing I find interesting is Tess' relationship with my husband. He loved her from the beginning so that was not a surprise, but Tess has become very dependant on him. Wherever he goes, she follows or whines if she can't. She knocked down his shirt to lie on and honest to goodness I think Tom may kill himself trying to get out of her way without hurting her because she is his shadow. So to all rest assured, Tess is already part of the Hill family. She's a love! Thanks to all,

Beth & Tom, Andrew (14), Kevin (12) and Patrick (10)

Buddy
Just wanted to give you an update on Buddy. We love having him in our home. He has such a gentle and sweet disposition. He loves all the attention he gets and is just happy to have someone near by. He knows us and gives big howls when we come back home after leaving him. It melts our hearts!

We are thrilled to have Buddy in our family and wanted to thank you for your help of bringing him to us. I will continue to give you updates on Buddy. He is such a nice little guy and is WONDERFUL with the baby.

Thanks so much.

Sarah

Logan

Logan is doing great.  This is at our house up in NH where he loves to sit in the sand, and go out in our little boat for rides.  He and our older beagle, Lucky, love to lay next to each other and hang out.  We are very grateful to BONES for letting us get Logan.  My son checks out the website regularly, but I keep telling him that 2 dogs is enough for now.  Thanks for  asking about Logan.

Suzanne

Annabelle

Here's the picture of the three of us! Thanks again for the advice and kind words! We took her to Good Manners for Beginners last night and she did much better this week! She's understanding Sit and Stand more but we're working on all the other commands. Good thing she likes treats!

Thanks again for all your help and we couldn't be happier with our Annabeagle...!

Kristin

Petey (formally Plato)

He's been awesome! He hiked his first peak last weekend and did great! He's settled right in as part of the family and he's been especially obdient and well behaved. The girls and Rob started obedience classes with him about a month ago. The girls have been taking turns as his handler at class and they've really been soaking up all of the information the trainer has been teaching them. Rob said Petey's the best behaved boy in the class!

We just love him and think he's a very special dog! We had a pet sitter come in for a couple of days over April vacation and he did great, so she will be sitting for him when we go away for the longer period of time in a couple of weeks.

Christie

Candy

Things are going great.  Candy still yells at us when we get home, but we can tell that she has not been upset all day & has gotten in a few doggie naps without us.  She is quite a bundle of energy in the morning & a long morning walk to do all her business has kept the house clean while we are gone.

She's just started the burrowing under the covers that we heard about, I think because it's gotten so chilly.

We are delighted with her & I think she's gotten attached to us also.

Thanks,
Lillian

Skippy

Bruce and I have had Skippy for over two months now and we are so enamored that I just can't explain... When we decided to adopt from B.O.N.E.S. and got to the point of our home visit, Lucie (B.O.N.E.S. foster/volunteer) came by with, her then foster, Skippy. He was so cute, still a little thin from the Limington rescue, but very friendly to the point of being familiar. We were captivated. Bruce had a smile on his face like never before; even after they left, he kept talking about Skippy and how cute he was... It must have been fate because it took no time for us to decide to adopt him.

We have been amazed at Skippy's intelligence and eagerness to learn (maybe it's just the chicken and cheese pieces). What's more, he has been surprisingly quiet; no major howling or barking. We did find a couple of correctable health problems that went undetected from his original check but he is doing great. He is so in love with us. He gets overwhelmed and whines elatedly when we return home from work or a quick trip out. He has also had the power to train us (or, at least, me) to bow to his needs and whims. I have gone from feeding him dry bagged food to cooking his food. I'm even researching recipes for treats. He is so sweet, friendly, loving, faithful, and dependant. Everybody that he meets says he's so cute and adorable. This, of course, gives Bruce the bragging rights to reply with, “Well, they say that dogs do resemble their owners...” We are so in love with Skippy, I just can't say enough...

Ellie Mae

Well, you have never seen a happier dog then EllieMae. She loves the property and spends hours walking through the beds and bushes and chasing frogs along the edge of the little pond. Sometimes Cassie joins her...and they make lots of noise, especially when they get the scent of a rabbit or squirrel. Ellie Mae actually is smiling all the time. And, of course, gets lots of hugs, pets and kisses. EllieMae and Cassie get along. They don't play together but they are definitely companions. Cassie, though smaller, is decidedly the alpha dog...but very tolerant. And EllieMae still has her little quirks. Although housebroken, she must be outside when the men mow the lawn. She gets so upset at them that she pees on the carpet. One good note is that she really has taken to my godson and is now accustomed to my neighbor Neil. Ellie raced up the stairs once too often and took a tumble. So, now she will not go upstairs. Her evening bed is the antique sofa in the sitting room. I've covered it with a comforter and 2 flannel sheets. It is "her" resting spot. At night I sit with her on the sofa and pet her and wish her a good night's sleep...as if she were a little child. She loves this attention. Funny, however, I once caught Cassie sleeping there. What an alpha hoot Cassie is! Ellie knows all the routines and is so comfortable here. What a sweetheart she is. Thank you to BONES for rescuing both dogs and allowing them to be adopted by me. I love them both so very much. Linda