Lick Your Lips and Say Cheese!

Look at the birdie and smile!

Not you. Your cat.

For $45 plus the cost of printing, photographer Dee Dollinger will come to your home and capture the pictorial essence of your pet, be it a tabby, golden retriever or desert tortoise.

The North Hollywood woman has been specializing in pet portraits for about three years.

“It takes patience,” Dollinger says. “One must know and love animals. I’d like to think I can relate to them.”

Lately, what with the growing demand from pet lovers, Dollinger has taken to working weekends at Valley pet shops. Last month, she was booked solid for four straight weekends at a Burbank pet shop. However, if you give her a call at home during the week, she still makes house calls.

“We take our own pictures, but it’s never the same,” said Sandy Gall of Studio City, who had just posed before Dollinger’s camera with her husband, Jeff, and their two Shih Tzus, Ti Ti and Candy.

“These are our children,” Jeff Gall said. “So this is our family portrait.”

Warns the photographer: “So many people wait until their dog or cat has died and then they say, ‘Oh, I don’t have any pictures.’ You just can’t wait that long.”