THE SCENE : Only in Malibu

“I gotta go,” says Sherman, “I gotta take Teddy somewhere.” Teddy is her mother, whose Malibu house is right behind Sherman’s store.

“Wait a second, Sherman,” I say, “there’s a dead seal on Little Dume. Who do I call?”

“Call 457-WILD,” says Sherman. “They’ll come pick it up.” And Sherman Lyn Baylin runs out the door, leaving the store, which she has had for four years, in the care of two towheaded kids behind the counter.

Sherman’s Place is partly an animal supply store--if you want a used saddle she probably has one, or a riding crop, or pet food. She sells Malibu tchotchkes--stuffed animals and T-shirts. For a while, she sold ladies’ underwear and an occasional bikini, but she seems to have run out. Sometimes there are handmade children’s clothes and children’s tennis shoes with sequin designs on the toes. Nick Nolte can be seen sitting on the bench outside eating an ice cream cone from the yogurt store next door.

She used to stock penny candy for the local kids but she lost money because she never could ask the kids to pay her. There’s estate jewelry in the case and over by the wall, for some reason, a professional men’s pants presser that Sherman will sell to anyone who wants to buy it. For a while, she was a skateboard supply store, but she couldn’t buy in enough volume to make it worth her while. And every Christmas, she and her mother drag all these ornaments (wooden, tin, hand-painted, glass) out of her mother’s garage and transform the shop into a Christmas store.

It’s partly an animal crisis center; if you find a stray anything (dog, chicken, owl), or your goat breaks its leg, or you can’t afford to keep your horse anymore, Sherman, who in previous incarnations was an actress and a bartender, will find a solution. There might be an ailing seal on an IV in the back room waiting for the San Diego Sea World people to come rescue it. And definitely Opi, Sherman’s pet opossum, which she rescued and fed by hand when it was a baby, will be hiding behind one of the cabinets.

If you walk in to buy pet food and you’re local, she might tell you to pay her later, which is one of the reasons she may ask if she can borrow some money. On the other hand, she may offer to loan you some.

About a month ago, she took over the store next door and went partners with a vet. I looked in one day and Sherman said, “How’s your cat?”

“Fine,” I said, “Why?”

“We make house calls,” she said. “Free.”

“How far will you travel?” I asked.

“Well, no one’s asked us to go to Alaska yet,” she said.

“And who watches your store when you’re gone?” I wondered.

“No one,” she said. “We shut the store.”

I noticed there were four chinchillas in a cage on the floor. “Are you selling pets?” I asked her.

“No,” said Sherman, “I don’t sell pets. They’re vacationing.”