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Fredericksburg family focuses on Lil' Pals

May 3, 2007 12:37 am

By LAURA MOYER

Sadie is not ready for her close-up.

Inside the air-conditioned RV that is Lil' Pals Pet Photography studio, Teri Beardsley needs just the briefest moment of calm to capture Sadie's beautiful basset hound face and strong, sleek frame.

But Sadie is all ears and tail and wiggle. She sniffs at the scratchy green artificial turf that's part of the garden backdrop her owners have chosen for the photo. She knocks over a pot of silk sunflowers.

Sadie's people, Robin and Scot Harrison of Fredericksburg, are used to her exuberance.

"Sadie's not a sit-still type of girl," Robin Harrison says fondly.

But Beardsley is determined, and eventually she captures Sadie on a Redskins backdrop, draped in a fuchsia feather boa and reposing (for about .42 of a second) on a blue velvet princess pillow.

When it's all done, Sadie gets praise, a treat and a scratch on the ears. And the Harrisons will get their choice of heart-melting hound glamour shots that capture Sadie's sweetness and sparkle.

The Lil' Pals mobile photo studio is in the back of of a comfortably appointed gooseneck trailer, 28 feet long and 8 feet wide.

This was its first day in business in the Fredericksburg area, but new franchise owners David and Teri Beardsley have booked appearances at pet stores, groomers and other petcentric sites through June.

The Beardsleys, who live in Fredericksburg, have been in business for 20 years selling an all-purpose cleaning product called Sterling's Magic.

Teri's dad, James I. Sterling, now 91, invented it in 1957. The Beardsleys took the business over when he retired.

With the Sterling's Magic company requiring less time, the Beardsleys started looking for a franchise they could get into without a bricks-and-mortar capital investment.

They wanted to put their sales background to use and control their own hours. Their interest in animals and photography led them to Lil' Pals, and they became the national company's seventh franchisee after completing a training program in January.

Teri Beardsley, 46, is the chief photographer while David Beardsley, 60, handles the technical side of things, showing clients digital images on two laptop computers and taking portrait orders.

The youngest of their four children, 16-year-old Kayla, is an assistant set designer and pet wrangler. She's in charge of a basket of noisemaking toys that she squeaks, rattles or honks to get an animal's attention just as the shutter opens.

Sadie the hound was among the Beardsleys' first portrait subjects.

Dog Krazy of Fredericksburg hosted the studio all day Saturday, in the parking lot behind the Caroline Street shop.

Customers booked appointments in advance, but some, like the Harrisons and Sadie, just showed up for an impromptu sitting.

"Sitting," of course, depends on the cooperation of the subject. Dogs, and especially cats, have opinions about unfamiliar settings, costumes and props.

Still, Saturday's photo subjects were pretty cooperative.

Piglet, a patient English bulldog who belongs to the owners of Dog Krazy, was the day's first client. She seemed genuinely happy to be in the middle of a family portrait with Nancy Powell and Christopher Guinn and their daughters, Ashleigh House, 13, and Alivia Guinn, 6.

Piglet calmly sat on a beach towel, with a lei around her shoulders, for a seaside-background shot.

Even a pair of angel wings, strapped on with crisscrossed elastic bands, didn't faze her. She just yawned, licked her nose and cocked her head.

But the starlet of the day was Lucy the Boston terrier. A delicate 13-pounder, Lucy is the eye apple of Kim Stricklin and Mickey Thacker of Stafford County.

It didn't take long for her to charm the Beardsleys, too. She seemed thrilled to do everything asked of her, and she wore costumes as if she put on the dog every day of her life.

When Teri Beardsley got out a tiny red velvet swoon couch, Lucy jumped up on it, crossed her tiny paws and looked expectantly at the camera.

In short, she was a ham.

All that sweet dog time is just one of the perks of the business. The Beardsleys have three dogs of their own and a soft spot for everybody else's, David Beardsley said.

"We haven't met a dog we haven't liked."