Evelyn Bridges Finds New Homes for 29 Beagles By Kim MacQueen Staff Writer, The Transylvania Times Evelyn Bridges is well-known for selling real estate in Brevard, but she says she only sells houses so that she can fund her real love:  animal rescue. She works tirelessly at it, calling and sending e-mails to like-minded friends who help find homes for dogs and cats who have no place else to go. This month, she got a rare chance to help in a big way.

When her friend Mike Beeson's fathr Gault Beeson was murdered June 4 in Marion, SC, she and her husband Marion Bridges and their friends from Clemson University attended his funeral.

Gault's widow then started to wonder what was going to become of her husband's 29 champion rabbit-hunting beagles.

"People called the dogs Gault's Angels, because he loved them so much," Bridges says.  "He had a beautiful kennel and the dogs ranged from age one to age 11."

Bridges said once she got the word out, she started getting calls and e-mails from California, Mississippi, Florida and Virginia as well as points in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

The dogs are registered champions, sought-after by rabbit hunters and pet owners aloke, and they were going for free.  Champion hunting dogs used in field trials can often fetch anywhere from $500 to $2,500.

Bridges' father, who died recently, used to hunt rabbits with beagles trailing their scent while she was growing up in Tennessee, she said.  So she loves the breed and had been around them all her life - but no one person could take 29 of them.

So Evelyn started calling and e-mailing people, and once she got started, she had nearly all of them placed within a week or two.

Some took the older dogs as pets, others for hunting.  Some of the dogs have stayed at homes and kennels in South Carolina while a few have gone to as far away as Maryland.  The largest number went to Tommy Ragan of Bridgeport, Alabama.

The last beagle was placed over the weekend.  Sunshine, a female, joins 11 of the beagles that Ragan, who used to hunt rabbits with Bridges' father, has taken in since Gault Beeson's death.

"I did it on account of Evelyn's daddy.  I just wanted to help out and help those dogs get good homes," Ragan said.  "She's done a good job with this, and the dogs are going to be taken care of.  I've got all kinds of buddies, and we're placing them here and there."