This section is devoted to our beloved dogs who are waiting at the Rainbow Bridge. If you would like to include a tribute to your B.O.N.E.S. beagle(s) that crossed to Rainbow Bridge, please send your story and/or photo(s) to tributes@bonesbeagles.org.
Read all of the tributes by paging through them below or click on a name to go to a specific article.
We first met Buddy at the Beagle Bash in Auburn in September, 2013. He came into our lives a few weeks later when we met Stacy who brought him down from Maine on October 5th. During the next few years he became a big part of our life, as together we battled his diabetes, blindness, and finally pneumonia which finally beat him on October 6th, 2016 nearly 3 years from the date we picked him up. Like most beagles I have met, he was a character to say the least, who often made us smile. I recall laughing at my 1st visit to the local CVS to transfer his prescription, for Mr. Buddy Bones, as his name indicated on the bottle. From that point on I often referred to him as Mr. Bones.
These paragraphs are meant to celebrate a dog's life well lived. I can't speak for the happiness he may have brought the previous 2 families that owned him. Even in his advanced years and blindness, he would holler at us to feed him in a hurry, and knock down the trash barrel looking for some discarded scrap. He was a beagle's beagle, who let us know what he wanted and had an uncanny sense of timing, you could count on him for consistency. Fortunately, he was able to make the 2016 Beagle Bash 2 weeks before he passed. He was in the hot dog eating contest, at a disadvantage because he couldn't see the hot dogs in the water, and the smell was dampened. I would dare say he was the oldest participant in that game, and seemed to enjoy the event as did all the beagles gathered around waiting for their chance to dive into the pool to gather some extra snack. He did get all of the hot dog offered, it just took him a little longer. In hind sight, the BASH was Buddy's last big outing and we were proud to take the old boy to the event.
Other good times for Buddy were centered around our lake house in NH. He did get to see it while he still had sight, and never forgot his way around the place after he lost it. Not much of a swimmer, he nevertheless enjoyed the trips north along with our other dog, a 10 year old lab mix. We picked up a leash hook from a vendor @ the Bash this year, and have it mounted at our lake house with his leash. We still look @ it and it brings a tear to either Mary Ann's or my eyes, because he loved his walks along the road surrounding the lake.
When he was alive, our lab used to approach him every morning and give him a big wet kiss to get him out of bed, which he never really liked. Now, I noticed she pauses and has looked every morning into the room he normally slept on his dog bed. We had to get rid of his bed there (it got messed up in his final days), and she too has had to cope with the loss of a companion. In her 10 years, she has always been the youngest dog, having to share affection with other older beagles and a dachshund. Now she is an only dog, getting all the love, but we have noticed her sadness. Perhaps another dog will perk her up, we are still debating what to do.
I could go on about how we miss that old, noisy beagle, but would rather extend our appreciation to the B.O.N.E.S. SSB Program for rescuing him and helping us get the best treatment for him we could. As we approached the end of his life, they gave us the moral support needed @ a time that is always tough for any dog lover. I predict there will be another hound in our life, but not another Buddy Bones.
Joe & Mary Ann Dufresne, October 23, 2016.
