Kerry Phillips: Professional Pet and House Sitting

Private Home and Pet Sitting.
Discrete. Reliable.
Vetted

For confidential pet care, you can reach us at 604-803-4792. We offer private home pet sitting services with vetted pet sitters who provide the best care for your furry friends.

Elsie & Kerry Private Pet Sitting

Elsie Bertholm The Pet Master with a Masters!

Elsie — Professional Background

Hello, I’m Elsie. I’m a healthy, positive, and active grandmother who brings a lifetime of leadership, care, and real-world experience. After raising three children as and building a long career in education, I value patience, consistency, and creating calm, supportive environments for both people and animals.

I am a retired elementary school principal and teacher, with 27 years teaching Kindergarten through Grade 7 followed by 17 years in school administration. My Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership reflects a strong foundation in responsibility, organization, and clear communication. Throughout my career I have been federally security vetted by the RCMP and trusted with the safety and well-being of large school communities, experience that translates naturally into caring for clients’ homes and beloved pets.

Animals and the outdoors have always been an important part of my life. My family has shared our home with cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, and gerbils over the years, and I genuinely enjoy caring for animals of all personalities and energy levels. I believe pets thrive when their routines remain familiar, and I focus on creating a relaxed, attentive presence while owners are away.

Relevant Experience and Credentials

Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership
Retired Elementary School Principal (17 years)
Elementary School Teacher, Kindergarten to Grade 7 (27 years)
Occupational First Aid
Federally security vetted by RCMP
Long-term personal experience caring for a variety of companion animals

Together with Kerry, we are available for local and international home and pet sitting assignments and are happy to provide long-standing personal and professional references upon request. We look forward to caring for your home and your pet family with warmth, reliability, and respect.

Kerry Phillips

Kerry Professional Background

Kerry Phillips brings a unique blend of artistic vision, technical precision, and professional discipline to Private Pet Sitters. With a career rooted in fine art photography and advanced atmospheric science, Kerry has worked extensively in the film and television industry as an on-set Special Effects Technician. Collaborating with internationally respected cinematographers and award-winning directors of photography, Kerry has developed a reputation for reliability, calm decision-making, and meticulous attention to detail.

This background translates directly into the world of home and pet care. Years of working in high-responsibility environments have strengthened strong organizational skills, safety awareness, and respect for clients’ spaces, routines, and privacy.

Relevant Certifications and Credentials

IATSE 891 Grip Rigging Certificate
• Grip Rigging
• Equipment Transport
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods
NRC Federal Pyrotechnics Certification
Federally security-vetted by RCMP
OSSA Elevated Work Platform
Occupational First Aid Level 2
Serving It Right
Food Safety Certification

Kerry & Elsie: Yes! Damn Fine People you should know!

Kerry & Elsie -so you can go and make Travel, Family & Life memories!

Review: Many thanks to Elsie for looking after our four cats while we were away. Elsie was a real delight! She was incredibly kind, easy to communicate with, and was a dream housesitter. Four cats can be a lot to look after, but Elsie seemed genuinely excited to look after our crew and really enjoyed spending time with them. She kept us up to date, when necessary, and sent lots of photos of our fur babies. She took excellent care of our home as well, and it was sparkling clean when we arrived home. I have no hesitation in recommending Elsie (privatepetsitters.com) as a housesitter and hope that we might get the opportunity to have them look after our fur babies in the future.

Kerry & Elsie= Happy Pet Parents

Another Happy Client confirmed

Hi Elsie and Kerry. We enjoyed your reports of your adventures in Portugal and Spain. We are thinking about 2-3 weeks spanning mid May. I hope to do the West Highland Way again but that may prove to be difficult. Options would be Norway and perhaps Tuscany where my sister has a 16th century apartment in a small village. Still can not get on to the sitters website as it does not accept my password and email instructions for resetting never come. Anyway you two are 6 stars. It would be fun to have you over for a day or two as our guests.

The best of the season to you.

K and H

Elsie and Kerry arrived a day early to make sure they are prepared for their stay. Everything went well. Elsie and Kerry were reliable and managed to take care of a large breed dog without any trouble. We found our estate, house, and dog,- in great shape when we returned. As this was our first pet sitting experience ever we are looking forward to many more possibilities to leave our house in the trusted hands of Elsie and Kerry again. An extra kudos for Elsie sending great text updates and photos every 2nd day! S and S

A photographer exploring rocky terrain near a calm sea with distant hills.

Kerry Phillips’s passion for visual art began at an early age, fueled by his fascination with light and its complex attenuation through the family lighting design business. This interest blossomed as he explored fine art photography, drawing inspiration from the diverse styles of renowned photographers such as Robert Doisenueax, Henri Cartier Bresson, Cheyco Leidmann, Weston brothers, Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, and Bruno Engler, each of whom influenced his photography techniques.Photo by Elsie Bertholm

Kerry's Photographic Heritage

Kerry Phillips' artistic journey, combining fine art photography and scientific atmospheric knowledge, enhances the career in the film industry as an on-set SPFX technician. Working alongside some of the world's best cinematographers, Kerry employs innovative photography techniques to create stunning visual art. Their expertise in weather and atmospheric effects not only elevates each project but also reflects Kerry's visual art passion, earning recognition and numerous accolades from award-winning directors of photography.

Relevant Credentials include:

Serving It Right
Food Safety Certification
IATSE 891 grip rigging certificate:
Grip Rigging and equipment transport Transportation of dangerous goods
OSSA Elevated Work Platform
Occupational First Aid Level 2
NRC: Federal Pyrotechnics certification
with RCMP Security Check clearance

Early Life

Kerry Phillips was raised on the Scarborough Bluffs and educated at RH King, followed by the renowned TV/Radio program at Stephen Leacock. After living in mountainous regions of Banff and Whistler for 16 years, Kerry attended SAIT in Calgary to refine his photography techniques and is now based in British Columbia. His personal photography journey began in junior high and continued through high school and college, fueled by a deep visual art passion.

The Beginning

As a young boy, Kerry Phillips became immersed in lighting, photography, and darkroom printing, where he developed a deep passion for fine art photography. He fell in love with the magic created and captured through the lens, finding inspiration in the photography techniques and emotional connections that visual art evokes in human response. Kerry was particularly fascinated by the diversity of styles exhibited by great photographers and became dedicated to mastering lighting, camera placement, and advanced film techniques.

My photo journey began at 8

My fine art photography journey began with my first camera, a not-so-fine art Kodak Brownie given to me by my parents and grandparents. Back then, photography was mostly for the affluent, but this sparked my visual art passion. I discovered not only what is seen through the lens but also the poetry and allure of our natural world. Years of intense dedication to photography techniques consumed my attention. Nature and its seasons have been a major influence on me, since my teens. The Environment Canada weather station training centre on the edge of Lake Ontario, just down the street from my childhood home, helped feed my insatiable desire for nature—much to the chagrin of my non-photographic friends, coworkers, and family, who I’m sure grew exhausted trying to keep up and dawdle over the changing light. I would like to thank everyone who patiently tolerated and contributed to my fine art photography passion.

Beautiful Lady model_red ballroom gown sitting on a bench in the shade looking seductively right

Analogue Technical Prowess

Kerry Phillips's artist biography reveals a profound exploration of emotion, connecting simple, natural subject matter to our human experience of impressionism. His fine art photography captures moments that are 'made in camera' using a variety of vintage lenses, particularly his favorites from the 1950s and 60s, including Leica, Hasselblad, and Nikkor. Over his lengthy film career, Phillips’s photography techniques have evolved immensely, as he has collaborated with award-winning directors of photography, learning to blend time, movement, and composition at the right intuitive moment. His exploration is less about a specific place and more about creating timeless, captivating visual poetry. Viewers are drawn to his deliberate, unstructured rhythm, glowing natural light, and his clear disdain for the overuse of AI computer alteration. This technical mastery, combined with a loose and lyrical allure, allows us to experience the sublime essence of photographic impressionism.

His Approach

The lingering beauty of Kerry Phillips' disciplines consistently resonates a particular reverence, a relationship, and a compelling arrangement throughout all his bodies of work. This artist biography highlights how his sequence portfolio studies organized symmetry with a static narrative, as our appreciation of man-made progress is given rhythmical ardour. In his fine art photography, the photographs are more about ratios of time and movement than about our relationship to time and space. Phillips expertly employs various photography techniques to take advantage of the coordinated interplay between humanity and nature, maintaining vertical prescience with minimal tonal range across many of his specific galleries, showcasing his visual art passion.

Grandpa Blair

Nature

Meditative exploration into meaning that is entirely impassioned; Mother Nature is not just out there to be bracketed off, captured, and used up. There is an intuitive movement through time – fleeting and then stopped with the mindful intention that it heightens the viewer’s connection to our environment. This connection is reflected in the artist biography of Kerry Phillips, whose fine art photography showcases unique photography techniques that enhance our understanding of the natural world. His visual art passion resonates with those who seek a deeper appreciation of their surroundings.

Compositional elements sit in quiet equilibrium, showcasing the fine art photography of Kerry Phillips, composed of textural layers of light, luminance, and consideration of marine nuances. Phillips's artist biography reveals a journey marked by a pure and instinctive appreciation of power, humor, and transformation. His photography techniques allow him to freeze transitory moments of life, light, and energy that will never be captured the same way again, reflecting his deep visual art passion.

The Gent is Family: Blackwatch Blair circa 1913-1917 Dallas

Child in green sweater holding a bright yellow sunflower outdoors.

Passion to interweave visuals and the heart, brain and body.

Kerry Phillips continues to push the boundaries of his visual art passion. His artist biography reflects a prolific career, with his fine art photography featured in numerous exhibitions and publications. Kerry is widely recognized for his ability to capture the essence of subjects, whether they are people, places, or things. The kinetic prowess, artistic composition, and storytelling gift are evident in Kerry's images, which often encapsulate a moment of human connection or reveal the hidden stories of his subjects. His keen eye for detail and unique photography techniques continue to inspire and captivate even the most discerning clients. Today, Phillips laminates his art onto quality substrates that are highly desired by interior designers, content buyers, publicists, and architects worldwide.

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Private Pet Sitters Bio & Photography: Kerry and Elsie