Portrait of a Rescuer: Sheri Berliner
Sheri Berliner with a Rottie pup
Sheri Berliner is an animal lover who dove in with both feet and never looked back.
As the owner of Petraits Pet Photography, she takes portraits of pets and their humans, as well as for local shelters and rescue groups who hire her.
“Better photos and the extra publicity I provide keeps the pets moving into their forever homes faster, allowing rescue groups and shelters to adopt out more animals,” Sheri said
After photography sessions, Sheri promotes the animals virtually; she sends a short biography along with a portrait of each pet to a list of around 3,600 people. She also runs two adoption websites; one on 1-800-save-a-pet.com and one on petfinder.com (see links along with contact info below.)
One of Sheri’s emails
She takes it further by finding homes for pets whose humans can no longer care for them, and takes in strays and fosters herself.
“At first I started volunteering at a shelter. Then I started taking in stray pets that I found. I realized that with my photographic and writing skills I could use the pets’ own beauty and stories to find them homes.”
Sheri has always been a pet lover. “I grew up with dogs, rabbits, turtles, and fish. But 19 years ago, I overheard a conversation that changed my life forever.”
A coworker casually mentioned her husband was going to drown a litter of kittens that had sought refuge in their yard. “I had never had a cat, never wanted one, but that night in May of 1989, I came home with a box of flea-infested kittens. Bugsy, the only surviving cat, turned 19 this week and sleeps on my pillow every night
In the past year alone, Sheri has fostered and found homes for over 30 pets. “When I foster a dog, I take them for lots of walks, introduce them to various situations, and learn as much as I possibly can about them so I can find them the appropriate home. I also foster cats, rabbits, hamsters, and birds.”
The shelters give Sheri the most difficult cases to spotlight for them. Though she’s not sure of the statistics, she says “3-legged, senior, special needs, one-eyed, allergies, whatever, people are willing to give homes to these very special animals. There are so many wonderfully loving people in this world. It’s my job to find them.”
It’s not always a happy ending. One of the most difficult experiences came when Sheri saw a neighbor kicking out a litter of kittens with the toe of her boot. Sheri took in the kittens, but the woman wanted to keep the mama cat. Sheri offered to take the cat to be spayed and at first the neighbor declined. “(She) came back a few weeks later to say I could get her fixed. I thought it was such an exciting point in my life that I had gained this horrible pet owners’ trust.” Sheri returned the cat after keeping her for a week to heal. The next day, she was found dead on the street. “I sobbed, cried, and grieved more for her than for any other pet in my life. I had grown so attached to her and I felt like I had failed her.”
There are other hurdles. “I wish that more vets were willing to give drastic discounts to rescuers. The adoption fees have gone up based on the cost of vetting the pets. A litter of kittens with distemper set me back thousands and half of them died.”
Petraits Pet Photography is now going into its 13th year of business and Sheri’s main goal is the same; to keep pets from ever ending up in shelters.
“Ideally, I’d like to see them go from loving home to loving home and never be institutionalized.”
Advice to those interested in getting involved? “Take it slow, one pet at a time. It might be best to offer to foster a pet for a local rescue group. That way they are usually taking care of their medical care and food. Don’t overwhelm yourself or it won’t be fun and you’ll get burnt out.”
Please take a minute to peruse Sheri’s work and contributions.
Petraits Pet Photography
Web site: http://www.petraits.com
Adoptions: http://www.petraits.petfinder.org
E-mail: sheri@petraits.com
Phone: 773-777-2891
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