Meet Julie Fennell of 2 Bullies And A Blonde in Princeton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Fennell.

Julie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I got into dog rescue kind of by accident in 2015. I saw a dog on the Shelter Animals of Irving Facebook page and his eyes kind of haunted me. I thought I couldn’t have another dog because one of my dachshunds was dog aggressive at the time, so I went to the shelter to visit him and see if he was friendly and planned to adopt him and find him a new home as soon as I could. I visited him on a Wednesday and was told he wasn’t up for euthanasia until Saturday at close of business. I told the shelter staff I would come back for him on Saturday in hopes that he’d get adopted before then, but that I’d be there as his safety net if he wasn’t. The next day on my lunch break, I checked the shelter’s website and to my surprise, he wasn’t listed. I got really excited thinking he had been adopted but when I called the shelter to check they told me he had been euthanized. I was crushed and spent my lunch break bawling. I am a high school teacher and am not a crier or an emotional person, so my students were pretty confused when they came back from lunch. After that happened, I swore I was never going to the shelter again and that I was not going to look at the Facebook pages that network shelter dogs, but I couldn’t stay away. I adopted my dog Gorillaz from that same shelter and started fostering for a rescue group in Irving,

In late 2015 through October 2016, I started a rescue with another animal advocate. Our beliefs on rescue ethics were completely different and after almost a year, I left that rescue and had no plans of starting my own, but again I just couldn’t stay away. After a few months of fostering dogs out of my home, I decided to take the plunge again and to do rescue my way.

2 Bullies And A Blonde was formed in January 2017 and it is a little different than most dog rescues in the DFW. The name is based on the idea that myself and my two bullies (Gorillaz and Juice) will work with the dogs that come into the rescue. Almost all of the dogs stay in my personal home. I have two friends that will periodically foster for me in emergency situations. My boyfriend and I have six personal dogs and there are usually 5-6 fosters at the house at one time. I have converted my garage into my “rescue room” and there are three 5×5 kennels and two 4×5 kennels along with heat and air conditioning.

My rescue takes in bully breed dogs of all sizes and shapes. We love the smushy faces and are particularly fond of taking in emaciated dogs with skin issues as well as dogs with behavior issues. Having the dogs in my home makes it easy to work on these issues and to help them become more adoptable. All dogs are completely vetted before they are available for adoption. This includes all vaccines, wormer, spaying/neutering, a microchip, and flea/tick/heartworm preventative. Being in the south we take in A LOT of heartworm positive dogs. This is an expensive treatment and we make sure all of the dogs we take in test negative before adoption.

We take in dogs from different areas around the south. American bulldogs are a favorite breed of mine and Miami, Fl seems to have an abundance of them in their shelters. We have a network of volunteers who drive 1-1.5 hour legs of a transport to help get them to Texas. We also take dogs from St. Landry’s Parish in Louisiana. We developed a relationship with this shelter and Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans after a plea was put out in 2017 when 39 pit bull type dogs were about to be euthanized. We’ve taken five dogs from St. Landry and helped 2 dogs from Villalobos find homes. We obviously save most of our dogs from local DFW shelters because we obviously have no shortage of bully breed dogs in our area.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Definitely not a smooth road. My first year being involved in rescue with someone who did not share the same ethics as I taught me a lot. When I started 2 Bullies And A Blonde, I knew exactly what I did and did not want to deal with. I’m not sure how familiar most people are with dog rescue, but the drama and antics of a lot of people involved are ridiculous. Doing most of the rescue activities on my own has made it easy to stay out of that though. A struggle we do face being so small is needing volunteers for transports and fundraisers. I am lucky to have a small circle of friends who care deeply about the rescue and help me in every way they can to transport dogs from shelters to my home and to vetting appointments. Sometimes, though we do need a helping hand getting dogs back and forth from Dallas to Princeton.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the 2 Bullies And A Blonde story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a small nonprofit bully breed rescue. We save these breeds from euthanasia and off the streets across the South. We are very fond of taking in smushy faces and I’d say we specialize in helping emaciated dogs with skin issues and big guys with behavior issues. I think that what sets us apart from a lot of other rescues is that almost every single dogs that come through the rescue stay in my personal home. I get to know each and every dog and am able to work with them daily on issues that might prevent them from getting adopted. We have a pretty quick adoption rate for bully breeds and I feel like that is because people get to see me interact with the dogs and their personalities come out in each video and picture I post as days pass with the dogs.
I am very proud of the number of dogs we save being so small. Originally, I thought we’d probably save around 20 or so dogs a year since they were going to all stay with me. In 2017, we saved 56 dogs and in 2018 we are currently at 51 dogs for the year. 107 dogs in almost 23 months blow my mind. We’ve accomplished so much more than I ever thought we would in such a short amount of time.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think we have been really lucky to grow such an awesome donor base. We have a faithful following on social media, and without them we wouldn’t be able to save the dogs we do. I am very lucky that there are people out there who believe in me and who have faith in our rescue and what we are trying to do. There would be no 2 Bullies And A Blonde without those supporters.

Pricing:

• Adoption Fees:
• Puppies: $300 (includes 3 rounds of shots, wormer, microchip, and spay/neuter when they are of age)
• Adults: $250

Contact Info:

• Website: 2bulliesandablonde.org
• Phone: 5809336897
• Email: 2bulliesandablonde@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2bulliesandablonde/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2BulliesAndABlonde501c3/

Image Credit:
Carlos De Leon

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