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.
This tribute is from B.O.N.E.S., to honor an extraordinary dog, those who helped rescue him, and the remarkable B.O.N.E.S. adopters who gave him six years of the love and care and good times he richly deserved.
In 2014, B.O.N.E.S. welcomed Willie from northern Vermont. He'd been rescued from an unspeakably abusive hoarding situation: living outdoors in an undrained pen, ungroomed, his feet infected with what can only be described as a 21st century version of World War I trench foot, his nails so soft and uncared for and grown so long and straight up that he could not use them for traction and had to walk on his infected paws. And if Willie could see at all, he could see very little.
He spent weeks with a remarkable B.O.N.E.S. foster mom, who gently bathed his feet daily in warm water and rubbed them with special oil to help them begin to heal - and in the process she strengthened Willie's trust in caring people.
Despite his past and for all his problems, everyone who met Willie knew immediately that he was an exceptional dog, worthy of all the care and kindness B.O.N.E.S. could provide. And with his healing underway, worthy, too, of an exceptional adopter. He quickly found one: a retired gentleman living in a small apartment in a rural community in Western Massachusetts, who needed Willie as much as Willie needed him. A home visit by a longtime volunteer made it clear that this home and this adopter would offer what Willie needed most: "patience and love."
Two B.O.N.E.S. board members brought Willie to meet his adopter on a March day in 2015, and marveled as this nearly-blind dog found his way around his new home within minutes, locating food and water bowls, a bed, and best of all, finding what would become his favorite place next to his adopter on the sofa.
Within days, he grew to his appreciate his adopter's culinary talents and especially to relish a special beef stew that he and his adopter never tired of sharing. For the next two years, Willie was a much-loved fixture in the small town, greeting townspeople on his daily walks, digging a favorite outdoor "bed" for himself in the soft dirt under the apartment bushes from which he could comfortably sense the action around him while he and his adopter enjoyed relaxing afternoons and greeted passersby, making weekly trips to the town store where he was allowed to accompany his adopter indoors and was plied with treats. Everyone came to recognize him and his devoted adopter, and town police stopped by with gifts for Willie: the matching leashes and collars and favorite treats they sensed his adopter might not be able to provide.
For the first time in his life, Willie had everything he needed. He gave back in kind, loving everyone he met, becoming the favorite playmate and gentle comforter of young children in the apartment building, and sustaining his adopter through sadly worsening health problems.
Shortly before Thanksgiving in 2017, B.O.N.E.S. received a tearful call from the adopter: he was entering hospice care. He could no longer provide the walks and other care Willie needed and loved, and the family member he had expected would care for Willie was no longer available to do so. He asked that B.O.N.E.S. allow Willie to move to a family he and Willie knew well and who, he promised, were worthy of Willie and committed to loving him and providing for his needs. And so Willie moved to a new home on a nearby farm, with a wonderful family who continued to bring him on visits to his first adopter but who also broadened Willie's world to include happy runs through their fields and cozy naps in their home surrounded by his new extended family.
As Willie aged and his past mistreatment took its inevitable toll, they saw him through glaucoma surgery, surgery for thyroid cancer, and worsening arthritis, adjusting his routines and their own to ensure that he could remain at the center of their loving and caring home. On another March afternoon in 2021, ironically almost six years to the day after Willie had joined his first adopter, they called B.O.N.E.S. to say that Willie was failing: no longer able to enjoy even short walks, clearly in pain despite his medications, and no longer enjoying meals that had always been a highlight of his days. They adored Willie, and they recognized it was his time. B.O.N.E.S. helped them with the COVID-era arrangements to be sure that they could be with Willie. His last experience was the touch of people he loved and their voices reminding this very special dog how much he was loved... and how much his presence and love had meant to so many others.
Ibby Nathans
