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.
Doug and I had to say goodbye to our beloved Charlie, our third beagle and first foster failure, on 1/8/2021. He gave us 11 years of kisses, laughs, and unconditional love.
Initially, we were asked to pick up and foster a beagle that had been found "at large" by Animal Control near where we live. What we found was a BEAUTIFUL and perfectly healthy young beagle boy (around 4-5 years old) which had us puzzled. Who could possibly give up such a handsome (if somewhat shy) little guy? What we learned is that Charlie was a failed hunter, most likely brought up to the Catskill Mountains from NYC and just left there when he didn't prove to be a good hunter. He was found roaming in the nearby woods, totally scared of everything.
It took a while for Charlie to learn that he had a loving and safe foster home with us... he was VERY skittish and the absolute opposite of an alpha male. But he was also a very loving little boy and it wasn't long until we were smitten and couldn't possibly give him up. We had just recently had one of our foster beagles adopted (at the 11th hour before becoming a foster failure) and we were still recovering from that.
Charlie got along very well with our other dogs, Trevor and Pete. The three of them helped to socialize our subsequent fosters, even helping them to find their hunting howl. Charlie's was most unusual—when we first heard it we thought he was being tortured. But it helped us to locate him the day Trevor and Charlie decided to escape under the fence and go on a little hunt of their own in the woods near our house at 11pm. Being as shy around people (mostly men) as he was, he would run away if anyone tried to approach him. I ended up sitting on the ground next to my car, with Doug hidden out of sight, until Charlie slowly but curiously made his way to me enough to put a leash on him.
Later on, after Pete had crossed the bridge, we brought Tunie into our household. She immediately began to mother Charlie and the two of them were inseparable—to the point where they would howl relentlessly if they were in separate crates. The two of them seemed to comfort each other after we had to say goodbye to Trevor. Tunie is now grieving by herself and seems a bit lost without her beloved companion.
It's so hard when the time comes to say goodbye to our furry friends. However, I wouldn't have traded the 11 years we enjoyed with him (and our others). We treasured the time we had with all our beagles and their memories still make us smile.
Thank you to B.O.N.E.S. for helping to add this little bundle of love to our household.
Mary Clare and Doug Springer
