At Green Meadow Veterinary Hospital, we have been fortunate to witness countless stories of rescue, hope, healing, and new families found. But few have involved a 1,400-mile round trip for a tiny gray kitten who barely weighed a pound.
This is the story of Bridge-It Bardough, the little kitten beneath a covered bridge whose unlikely journey eventually inspired something much bigger: The Bridge-It Fund.
It Started Beneath a Covered Bridge
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2015, a group of friends traveling by motorcycle stopped at a covered bridge about 25 miles outside Marietta, Ohio.
Despite the rumble of several motorcycles, a tiny gray kitten emerged from the bridge. She was alone, obviously hungry, and remarkably unafraid.
The travelers shared what food and water they had with her before continuing into Marietta for the night. But one of them couldn’t stop thinking about the kitten they had left behind.
He set his alarm for 6:00 the next morning.
After stopping at a grocery store for a box, he headed back toward the bridge, hoping the little kitten would still be there. Along the way, he noticed a veterinary hospital that happened to be open that day.
When he arrived back at the bridge, there she was.
The kitten came out to greet him once again. He fed her, gave her water, placed her safely in the box, secured it to his motorcycle, and headed back toward Marietta.
Fortunately for both of them, it was Green Meadow Veterinary Hospital.
The tiny gray passenger arrived at Green Meadow Veterinary Hospital, where our team examined and cared for her.
At the time, we believed we might have a client who would be interested in adopting her. Her rescuer left a donation toward her care and boarding and, with more than a few tears, continued his motorcycle trip.
But he couldn’t get that little kitten out of his mind.
When he returned home to Michigan, he told his wife the entire story. Somewhere along the way, the kitten had also acquired a name:
Bridge-It Bardough.
“Bridge-It” came from the covered bridge where she had been found.
“Bardough” came from the money her rescuer joked he had taken from his bar dough to pay toward the care of the kitten he had met on a motorcycle trip.
The name stuck.
700 Miles Back to Marietta
With Monday being Memorial Day, he waited until Tuesday morning to call Green Meadow.
He and his wife had made a decision:
They wanted Bridge-It to become part of their family.
Fortunately, she had not yet been promised to another home.
So that Thursday, this time traveling by car, he made the 700-plus-mile journey from Michigan back to Marietta to bring Bridge-It home.
By the time she visited her new veterinarian the following week, Bridge-It weighed just 1.3 pounds.
Tiny kitten. Enormous personality.
Bridge-It Takes Over Michigan
Bridge-It arrived at a home already occupied by two Golden Retrievers and a Beagle mix.
Apparently, no one remembered to tell Bridge-It that she was the smallest member of the household.
She emerged from her carrier without hesitation and promptly took charge. There was no hiding beneath furniture or cautiously observing the dogs from afar. Bridge-It simply walked into her new home as though everyone had been waiting for her arrival.
The dogs became her dogs.
Over the years, she chased them, cuddled with them, groomed them, played with their tennis balls, raced through the house, slid across the floors, and spent countless hours watching wildlife through the windows.
A kitten who had once been alone beneath an Ohio covered bridge had found exactly where she belonged.
One Little Kitten. A Much Bigger Bridge.
At the time, no one standing beside that covered bridge could have known where Bridge-It Bardough’s story would eventually lead.
It began with a hungry kitten.
Then someone stopped.
Someone went back.
Someone cared.
Someone opened a veterinary hospital door.
And someone drove more than 700 miles to return for an animal he simply couldn’t leave behind.
Years later, Bridge-It became the inspiration for The Bridge-It Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping remove barriers to veterinary care for animals and the people who love them.
Her story represents something at the heart of our mission: sometimes the distance between an animal in need and a better life can feel enormous.
The Bridge-It Fund exists to help bridge that distance.
Today, through veterinary care assistance, spay and neuter initiatives, support for veterans and their pets, and other community programs, we are working to create more stories of healing, hope, and families kept together.
And it all traces back to one very small gray kitten brave enough to walk out from beneath a covered bridge.
Bridge-It may have moved north, but apparently she never surrendered her Ohio roots.
Her family has been known to affectionately call her their “Stinkin’ Buckeye,” insisting that despite living in the Wolverine State, Bridge-It remains loyal to Ohio State.
Some things, it seems, even a 700-mile relocation cannot change.
Help Us Bridge the Gap
Bridge-It’s story reminds us what can happen when someone chooses to stop, turn around, and help.
The Bridge-It Fund carries that spirit forward by helping make veterinary care possible for animals and families in our community who might otherwise have nowhere to turn.
Donations may support programs including:
· Emergency veterinary care assistance
· Spay and neuter initiatives
· Veterinary care for veterans’ pets
· Community programs designed to keep pets healthy and families together
Donations to The Bridge-It Fund are tax-deductible as permitted by law.
Whether you give in honor of a beloved pet, in memory of one who has crossed the bridge before us, or simply because you believe every animal deserves the opportunity to receive needed care, your gift helps another animal take the next step toward the other side.