Potbelly Manor in the News

Smith & Agli's Potbelly Manor has been featured in the news on many occasions. Please click on the links below to read the press coverage we have received.

"NBC 10 NEWS" article June 25, 2020

North Kingstown Potbelly Pig Rescue Needs Used Shoe Donations

June 25, 2020 by Sam Read

A purple painted house sits off of Ten Rod Road in North Kingstown.

"Everybody knows the purple house, and everybody knows the cow car," said Jennifer Lima, a two-year volunteer of "Smith and Agli's Potbelly Manor."

When driving by the house, you can't miss dozens of buoys that are positioned perfectly outside... Read more...

A North Kingstown potbelly pig rescue is asking for used shoe donations. (WJAR)

"Rhode Island Monthly" article March 14, 2019

WHO KNEW: THIS PURPLE VICTORIAN IN NORTH KINGSTOWN IS A PIG SANCTUARY

March 14, 2019 by Kaitlyn Murray

Don't let the buoys fool you. Pigs are the stars of the show at Smith and Agli's Potbelly Manor.

Along an unassuming section of Ten Rod Road in North Kingstown, a lavender Colonial-style house sits in a shroud of mystery. The front lawn is besieged by buoys and trinkets. A cow-themed town car sits in the driveway. Many a passerby has wondered about the enigmatic property: Is it an antique store? A longstanding fisherman's yard sale? The Purple Cow, perhaps? ... Read more...

Photography by Meaghan Susi

"Shop in RI" May 2017

Smith & Agli's Potbelly Manor

"North Kingstown Standard Times" front page photo November, 2015

20 Years at the Manor

Photos by Laura Paton

This photo was on the front page of the North Kingstown Standard Times. It was from our Open House in November. We had a great turnout and were so happy to see people coming to the farm to meet the animals and bring donation of shoes, blankets and money... Read the caption...

"The Westerly Sun" article March 27, 2015

State Street principal plants a kiss on pot-bellied pig to settle bet

By Anna Maria Lemoine
Sun Staff Writer

The pot-bellied pig from Smith & Agli's Potbelly Manor in North Kingstown received a kiss on the snout/mouth from State Street School Principal Audrey Faubert on Friday afternoon in front of about 370 students who did everything they could not to squeal - it would've scared the pig. Read more...

"The Providence Journal" article March 28, 2014

North Kingstown's Potbelly Manor has five potbellied pigs up for adoption

By Donita Naylor
Journal Staff Writer

The winter was hard for Smith & Agli's Potbelly Manor, where Liz Smith and Audrey Agli operate a rescue for potbellied pigs. Five pigs are up for adoption this spring, which is not a time to transform an indoor pig to an outdoor pig, Agli observed. Besides that, fences are in danger of breaking, roofs are leaking, and they've lost the floor in the front barn. With spring, there are many projects with which the couple need help. Read more...

"RI Local" article October 2013

Potbelly Manor: Unique Rescue Dedicated to an Uncommon Cause

By Frank Chrupcala

Believe it or not, it's easy to hear Potbelly Manor's inspiring message through the oinks, snorts, grunts, quacks and moos that occupy ears of all shapes and sizes at the unique North Kingstown animal rescue. Read more...

"North Kingstown Patch" article March 27, 2013

Boy Scout Providing Community Service for Local Animal Rescue

Posted by Barbara Pontes Zeller, March 27, 2013 at 12:37 AM

My name is Bobby Zeller. I am 11 years old and live in Newport and I am a Boy Scout with Troop 82 Portsmouth. I am working on several merit badges at this time, but the most important one is Citizenship in the Community. When I was looking for a charitable organization to work with I found Smith & Agli's Pottbelly Manor. Read more...

"Standard Times" article February 2013

Potbelly Manor a Safe Haven for Neglected Animals

By Evan Dunphy

Driving East on Ten Rod Road, North Kingstown, just pas the Wickford Junction train station, stands Potbelly Manor. Decorated with hanging buoys from old up-and-down lines at the entrance, this light purple colonial home holds three families volunteering most of their free time and about one acre of land to saving mistreated or abused animals. Read more...

"North East Independent" article July 5, 2012

An Oasis for Abandoned, Abused Pigs

By Chris Church/Independent Staff Writer

Driving down Ten Rod Road, it's impossible not to notice the house with more than a hundred lobster pot buoys covering the front lawn and a 1993 Lincoln Town car with "MOO" vanity license plates and a fiberglass model cow adorned to the roof. Read more...

"The Providence Journal" article February 26, 2011

'Cow Car' is the Calling Card for North Kingstown Animal Rescue

By Peter C.T. Elsworth
Journal Staff Writer

Audrey Agli's 1993 Lincoln Town car was professionally decorated as a "Cow Car" to draw attention to her North Kingstown shelter for abused and abandoned animals. A fiberglass model, left, of her Ayrshire cow Bette, who died in December, stands proudly on the roof.

NORTH KINGSTOWN - Bette passed away in December, but Audrey Agli's 1993 Lincoln Town Car remains a testament to her spirit.

Decorated with brown and white markings, Agli's "Cow Car" is adorned with such sayings as "Mooing Along" across the trunk, "Cow Cruzin'" along the front fenders and "Bette Davis Eyes" under a graphic of a cow with big eyes across the hood.

And it is topped by a hand-made fiberglass model of Bette herself.

"It's her coloring, with all the same spots," said Agli, an energetic woman with glasses decorated in cow markings. She said her sister gave her the Ayrshire cow 12 years ago after she had been sold off as a runt calf.

Another sign, "Smith & Agli's Potbelly Manor," refers to the shelter farm for abused and abandoned animals that she and her partner, Liz Smith, run at their home next to Paul Bailey's Chrysler Jeep Dodge on Ten Rod Road. (Painted a striking violet with a front yard decorated with hundreds of lobster pot buoys, the house stands out as much as the car.)

While Bette's old barn now sits empty in the middle of the one-acre back yard, other barns and enclosures contain ducks, turkeys, pigeons, goats and potbelly pigs that have all been rescued from inattentive or malicious owners. Agli and Smith try to find homes for them but keep animals that have lingering behavioral problems.

Vietnamese potbelly pigs are the focus of their efforts because they are "throwaway animals," according to Smith, a reiki master and certified angel and tarot reader. Adorable as piglets, they are often abandoned when they grow up.

"People think they will stay a teacup and they don't," she said. She and Agli said the farm had rescued as many as 60 potbelly pigs since they started rescuing animals in 1995.

Meanwhile, their most recent acquisition is Rose, a one-year-old Saint Bernard that had been found malnourished and chained to a tree in Tennessee. Agli said they will keep her as a farm dog, adding that she and Smith have owned "seven or eight Saints" over the years.

"They are throwaway animals," said Smith, explaining that Saint Bernards are often abandoned because they get so big and they drool.

Agli said she got the idea of decorating her car to advertise the shelter farm about seven years ago. And although the farm mainly rescues potbelly pigs, she chose Bette as the model.

"I wanted my car to look like Bette," she said. "She meant a lot to me."

She subsequently painted her white 1983 Buick LeSabre with brown markings, and her brother Donald attached a metal cow to a ski rack on the roof.

However, the car lasted only a couple of years and in 2005 she purchased the white 1993 Lincoln Town Car, which she had professionally decorated. And she often seasonally dresses the fiberglass Bette in a witch's hat at Halloween and a Santa Claus hat at Christmas, according to Steve Joslin, who is a tenant and helps out on the farm. His assistant Matt Forest has adopted a potbelly pig named Rachel.

Agli uses the Cow Car every day, including driving to her job as a billing specialist in the Rhode Island Department of Accounts and Controls in Providence where it "makes the garage by an inch."

She is also a technical sergeant in the Rhode Island Air National Guard, after active duty in the Air Force, and regularly serves at Westover Air Force Base in Springfield, Mass.

Agli said the car attracts attention and even volunteers, although people will often try to offload their unwanted pets.

"I love this car, but I don't hide well with it," Agli said. "You don't go anywhere without people knowing."

The car has driven in the July 4th Parade in Wickford and the Columbus Day parade on Federal Hill, and was featured at the recent Rhode Island Pet Expo in Providence.

Meanwhile, Agli said she is the only driver. "No one else would drive this car. My son would rather walk," she said, referring to her son, Normand, a sergeant in the National Guard who is about to be deployed to Afghanistan.

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

"The Providence Journal" article August 17, 2009

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."

"Cranston Herald" article September 1, 2005

A Cow Car Worthy of a Silver Screen Namesake

Thursday, September 1, 2005
By Meri R. Kennedy

There's a good chance you've driven by it in Cranston. If you have, you probably laughed, honked your horn or just rubbed your eyes and looked again to see if you were imagining it all as the car decked as a cow passed by you. Read more...