A Home Where Bonesy Belongs

Written by The Animal Guardians Founder Katelyn O’Neill

Professional photography by Framed Media

Happy Tail-ers will recall Bonesy’s initial Happy Tale published in September, when we were looking for that perfect home for him.

Thankfully, this handsome, loving lad didn’t have to wait too long...

Laura, a true animal lover and volunteer at TAG going on for two years now, had followed Bonesy’s story from the get-go. Seeing the sweet-natured young dog every weekend and spending time with him, she took his story home with her.

Between Laura’s updates and those on Facebook, as well as the opportunity to meet him, Bonesy crept into her father, Colin Humphries’, heart. Being an incredible family with a huge love for animals, the interest was contagious and soon the family was whole-heartedly on board.

After spending some time with Bonesy in our parking area, Colin said: “I want to adopt him.”

And, just like that, meet ‘n’ greets were arranged so that their four-legged family members could offer their input as well. Tag adoptees Duke and Diesel (Africanis cross and Pit Bull), Dexter the Bull Terrier, Candy the Pekingese, and Ruby the Rottweiler cross were all carefully introduced. It was a total success – each of them took a shine to Bonesy.

It was a bittersweet day for all of us watching him leave. Seeing Colin’s face light up chatting about his “diamond of a dog” and Laura beaming when explaining Bonesy’s antics and showing us photos of him is priceless.

Finally, he’s exactly where he belongs – the soft life he’s so deserving of with an amazing and loving family to call his very own.

It won’t be the last we see of Bonesy, as Duke and Diesel are brought to visit us at TAG regularly; we know, without a shadow of a doubt, Bonesy will be popping in for visits too!

Colin, Bonesy’s new dad, shares...

Our Bonesy was found by TAG (The Animal Guardians Angels) in an awful state, and when the write-up on Bonesy first appeared on TAG’s Facebook page, which my wife, Cheryl, follows, she immediately showed me. My heart just sank into a million pieces – seeing Bonesy’s eyes in the photo just grabbed us.

Our daughter Laura is a volunteer at TAG on weekends/public holidays and throughout her time there she’s told us very sad stories, but a lot of happy ones too.

Her story of that one weekend she first met Bonesy when he arrived at TAG was ever so heart-breaking. We all cried listening to her tell of Bonesy’s sad start to life, and the wonderful Angels at TAG (Annalize and Kate) feeding him up to five small meals a day to bring up his weight and strength.

One weekend not long after Bonesy arrived at TAG, I decided to visit him. We looked in each other’s eyes and something clicked that’s hard to explain. I went home and chatted to Cheryl about him, whilst tearing up, as Bonesy shouldn’t be alive today considering the state he was in in the beginning.

Cheryl turned to both Laura and me and said: “We must do something for Bonesy.” It didn’t take any convincing at all. We as a family have five wonderful fur babies - three of whom are TAG rescues – and have a lot more love to give.

I immediately phoned Annalize, telling her: “I WANT Bonesy.” I arranged a first meet ‘n’ greet at TAG with Diesel and Duke, then Annalize and Kate came to our home with Bonesy to mingle with all our fur babies together.

The meet ‘n’ greet went off so well – then we heard the words: “I’m very happy, Bonesy can come home!” from Annalize. That was just the highlight of our day.

The longest part was the wait for our boy to come home, as Bonesy was booked in on the Thursday for neutering and we could only fetch him on the Friday. Talk about time moving slowly! Bonesy’s time arrived for him to come home and Laura couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

Bonesy arrived home and immediately started playing with his brothers and sisters.

He’s settled in so well that it feels like we’ve had him for years, never mind nearly two weeks. He’s the most loving dog and gives so many hugs and kisses that his terrible past is now in the past. His future now is pure joy and happiness with a lot of love around him. We can’t imagine our lives without Bonesy!

We have a lot of admiration for Annalize and Kate for what they did for Bonesy. He’s alive today and thriving because of the love and care they have for him. They do exceptional work for all their rescues and their love and loyalty is imprinted on every dog that they rescue that eventually gets adopted.

TAG will continue to see Bonesy when he visits them with his other rescue brothers from TAG to say “Hello” and give them kisses.