Meet Aften Bell of The Love Pit Rescue

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aften Bell.

Aften, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I fully immersed myself into rescue when I moved to Texas in 2010 and started volunteering for DFW Rescue Me. I fostered one of their Justice Dogs – a pit bull mix named Buddy who was healing from severe third-degree burns all over his back and legs. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with him and decided on adoption. Fostering him through the medical process opened my eyes to so much. I had no idea what many of these dogs were going through. The minute he showed up in my life, I knew what my purpose was and I knew I needed to do more. I eventually went on to foster a handful of dogs for a pit bull organization called DFW Believe A Bull and after going through several adoption processes, I soon found myself rescuing on my own.

In early June 2015, a very special dog showed up in my life that changed everything. I was driving to a design meeting in Oak Cliff and I noticed several cars swerving to miss a stray dog. Walking sluggishly with her head down, mind and body broken—she just kept walking further into traffic. I’m convinced she was determined to get somebody to stop and help her. Little did she know that somebody would be me and little did I know she would change my life forever.

As soon as I laid my eyes on her, I stopped my car, got out in the pouring rain and down on my knees. I called to her “come here sweet pea, come here, girl”. I’m not sure why I said Sweet Pea at that moment, but I did and sure enough, she came walking towards me. She was a little hesitant and walked towards the other lanes of traffic, but I called for her one more time and she stopped. It was like she knew at that moment that I was going to save her, that she was safe with me and to trust me. She walked over and pancaked to the ground in submission.

It was at that moment I realized how bad her condition truly was. Complete with a giant red spiked collar, the left side of her face was ripped open and missing, exposing her gums. Most of her front teeth were gone or shaved down and she had old and new lacerations from fighting all over ears, face, chest, and legs. As if it that wasn’t enough, it was obvious she had several litters of puppies as her teats were very swollen and sagging. She was so broken and defeated, but despite it all, she had the sweetest demeanor of any dog I had ever met.

With a little coaxing, I eventually got Sweet Pea into my car and rushed her to Metro Paws Oak Cliff. During that drive, I cried my eyes out. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How can any human allow this to happen to any animal? I just couldn’t bear the thought of what she had been through. At that moment I disliked people on a deeper level than I ever have before. Once we arrived at the vet, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do. How was I going to afford her care? Where was she going to go? I contacted several rescues but unfortunately, everybody was full and nobody could help. I was in panic mode.

Thank goodness for Facebook and Instagram. I decided to make a post and tag everybody I could and also add every hashtag I could and sure enough, it worked. In 48 hours that post traveled the world and raised close to 5k for Sweet Pea. In a matter of two days, I saw the worst in human beings, to the best in human beings, many of whom I didn’t know. This, combined with the spirit of Sweet Pea motivated me to take a bigger step in rescue. I wanted to help more dogs like Sweet Pea and also work with more people who shared the same vision. So I did just that.

Most of the donations went to Sweet Pea’s medical care and she eventually came home with me and the rest went into saving 13 more dogs from euthanasia at the Fort Worth animal shelter. This was the start of TLP. And just in case your wondering, Sweet Pea is living the good life in her furever home—my home.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Building and running a pit bull rescue is definitely no walk in the park. It’s really, really hard work and very emotional. Having experience in rescue prior, I somewhat knew what I was getting into but not to the full extent. I started The Love Pit with the help of a handful of fosters and my husband. We handled intake, social media, foster and adoption applications, contracts, meet and greets, home inspections, adoption returns, medical emergencies.

You name it – we did it and all while working full-time jobs and raising families. It was beyond stressful and I’m pretty sure I said I was quitting on a weekly basis. There was a point where we had a lot of fosters resign and I ended up with all the dogs in my house because we couldn’t afford to board them. It was the most stressful time of my life but I knew I couldn’t give up. Instead of quitting I decided to run things differently. I took the advice of a long time rescue mentor, Jim Wenger of DFW Rescue Me and set the entire operation up as small business.

We slowed down our intake, separated volunteers into teams, amped up fundraising, created a professional brand identity, built an inventive foster to train program and recruited experienced volunteers. It was this massive change in operations and the AMAZING volunteers behind it that truly catapulted TLP into what it is today. In three years, we have grown from 10 volunteers and fosters to now having over 100 and we are adopting out close to 300 dogs a year to wonderful families in Texas.

You might say we took a huge leap in the right direction, but without all the hardships and struggles along the way, we would not be where we are today.

Please tell us about The Love Pit Rescue.
The Love Pit is a 501c3 foster-based, non-profit dog rescue in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Our mission is to reduce the homeless pit bull population through rescue, rehabilitation, training, and advocacy.

We are one of the largest pit bull rescues in North Texas, adopting out close to 300 pit bulls a year. I take great pride in knowing that TLP is not only about the dogs, it’s about the humans caring for them as well. We created our Bully Buddy foster-to-train program where every foster is assigned their own Bully Buddy, Medical & Training coordinator to better assist them with getting their foster dog adopted. Fostering a dog can be one of the most rewarding things you have ever done but it can also be tough. Having that support system is extremely helpful and a constant reminder that you are not alone.

One of the programs I am most proud of is our Training program. Over the years we have focused a lot of our attention on behavioral training for every single one of our TLP dogs as we believe training is the key to successful pit bull adoptions. We started our program with several professional trainers in the DFW area and with their guidance have now been able to take the training program completely under our own roof. TLP now offers and requires that each of our fosters enroll in our private, in-home training lessons. The goal is that each and every dog understands the basics prior to adoption such as sit, stay, crate, leash, and socialization. We also offer three in-home lessons to our adopters.

I’m also very excited to announce another program that is going to make a big difference in the DFW pit bull community. As mentioned above, TLP is not just about the dogs but the humans that love them as well. With our new and improved “guest dog program”, iREHOME, we will now be able to make a bigger impact. What many people don’t know about rescue is the overwhelming number of emails, messages and phone calls we get on a weekly basis of people needing help with their pit bulls.

From training advice, help with vet expenses, landlord issues, military leave, divorce cases, rehoming needs and people finding stray dogs, we hear it all. It’s beyond devastating, to say the least, and the majority of these people truly love their dogs and need help. With the iREHOME program, we will now be able to help in a much bigger way by offering extensive tools and resources to help people keep their dogs or for them to safely and effectively rehome their dogs. This program will be run by one of the largest teams with TLP and will launch Summer 2018.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
There is really only one thing I would have done differently and only people in rescue will probably relate. I would have invested in a shelter database program before rescuing our first dog. We didn’t start using one until early 2017 and it was a struggle trying to locate all the medical information on the dogs we have rescued the years prior.

After switching to a new company this year called Shelterluv and nearly 3 months of data entry, we are almost caught up and feeling organized. It’s a new day for all us volunteers at TLP!

Pricing:

• $250 adoption fees for adult dogs and puppies, includes spay/neuter, rabies, microchip, vaccinations and 3 free in-home training lessons.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thelovepit.org
• Phone: (469) 701-0235
• Email: info@thelovepitrescue.org
• Instagram: thelovepit
• Facebook: thelovepit
• Twitter: lovepitrescue

Image Credit:
Clay Hayner Photography, Carlos De Leon, Katty Strite & Jessica Miramontes

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