On 8/17/09 The Providence Journal profiled 4 unique yards in Rhode Island and chose Potbelly Manor as one:

Four area yards are apple of keepers’ eyes

10:45 AM EDT on Monday, August 17, 2009

By Tatiana Pina

Journal Staff Writer

Liz Smith, left, and Audrey Agli have decorated their yard on Ten Rod Road in North Kingstown with lobster buoys.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

North Kingstown

Buoys — short and tall, faded and torn — stand in clusters and hang from a maple tree in the front yard at 401 Ten Rod Rd. People know Audrey Agli collects buoys. Friends and perfect strangers will drop them off. Her partner, Liz Smith, says she was a sea captain in a past life.

The buoys draw you in, but look deeper in the yard, perhaps at the lobster pots, where a few cats have found a cozy place to sleep. The cats are part of a menagerie that the women rescued and keep on their property at Smith & Agli’s Potbelly Manor, an animal rescue.

Agli, Smith, and Agli’s son, Norm Gagnon, live in a purple-and-lavender Victorian on the property where they keep the animals. They started Potbelly Manor after Skipper, a potbelly pig, came into their lives. The women already had two potbellies. But Skipper needed a place quickly, or he was going to be killed. He arrived in 1996 beaten, bleeding and burned, with just a few bristles on his body. Bringing Skipper back to health prompted Liz and Audrey to realize that people often discarded potbellies once they grew large and less manageable.

These days they have 5 potbellies, 10 cats, several pigeons, 2 dogs, 2 goats, 2 bunnies and a cow named Bette Davis. Smith, 56, is a Reiki master and tarot card reader with a business in East Greenwich. Agli, 56, works in accounts control for the state.

“I personally find it’s very relaxing to me if I had a bad day, since the animals, no matter what goes on, they are always happy to see you,” says Agli. “For me, it’s better than counseling.”