One woman’s manic social media posts are getting dogs adopted in Sacramento
The public information officer squatted on the concrete in slightly flared jeans, her pin-straight hair parted in the center, and cooed at the dog like she was a pigeon. The dog’s ears perked up, and she looked right at her. A black nose stood out like a little heart against her white face. The dog tilted her head.
Perfect. Brittani Peterson tapped on her phone and took the picture before Freckles jumped on her yet again.
“There you go,” she said to the dog, voice high-pitched and gentle. “Good dog.”
When the civil servant stood up, Peterson addressed the noise she had made.
“I would say it sounds like a pigeon,” she said, laughing. “It always gets my dog to look at me.”
Peterson has developed a host of strategies to get a dog or a cat to make eye contact for the ideal cute headshot most likely to lead to an adoption. This is a data-based decision on her part: A study in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science found that higher-quality photos and photos in which the animal looked directly at the camera led to faster adoptions.
So, in the name of science and animal welfare, the county worker will whistle, she’ll use baby talk, she’ll dangle treats, she’ll deploy squeak toys and, in the case of Freckles the young-ish pit bull puppy, she’ll coo — like a pigeon.
It’s all part of a typical day’s work for Peterson, who is usually at the Sacramento County Bradshaw Animal Center two days a week, taking photos of dogs, cats and sometimes other animals waiting for a permanent home.
“I think people don’t understand how hard it is to do pet photography,” she said. “Because they move so much, so I’m over here taking 1,000 photos for like, four good ones.”
Then, with give or take 1,000 photos in her camera, Peterson returns to her home office and writes slightly manic-sounding social media posts gushing over the animals — mostly dogs and cats — who are waiting for the right people to adopt them. She recently told people she cried with joy into her iced coffee at an adorable dog. She informs the public that a relaxed 51-pound Siberian husky mix has “paid-off-my-student-loans energy.” She writes about her seasonal depression and the “emotional freefall” caused by the knowledge that a snuggly 3-year-old German shepherd was still at the shelter and not in a permanent home where she could act like a giant lapdog. Peterson’s therapist, Gary, makes regular appearances in her posts (and yes, that’s her real therapist).
Peterson’s mission, said her boss, Annette Bedsworth, is to “be bold.”
“You have to be bold to save lives,” said Bedsworth, Sacramento County’s director of Animal Care Services. And in order to effectively educate the public, she said, “We have to have fun.”
With that in mind, Peterson, who started at Animal Care Services in September 2024, decided “diary entry” was the best tone to take. Now, the people of Sacramento County get their animal shelter news filtered through Peterson’s core group chat, She-Unit. The four-member chat is populated by Peterson and three close confidantes, all of them vegan and always on standby for effusive commentary about the latest dog or cat who deserves a home.
Peterson channels it into her work, as seen on the shelter’s social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram.
She said her role at the county is “not just a job; it’s my passion.” She burned out in previous communications jobs at California’s Office of Emergency Services and State Parks, where there was understandably less freedom to snuggle with dogs and get silly. Of her work at Bradshaw, Peterson said, “Call it my unicorn position.”
Passionate shelter volunteers
While Peterson photographed Freckles, the dog was outside with one of the shelter’s “Yardbird” volunteer, Mike Michler.
Like all the dogs Yardbirds work with, Michler said that Freckles “still needs a little manners.” The volunteers sit outside with the dogs in special enclosures, playing with them and giving them special, gentle attention. Another Yardbird that day — Joe Chavez — had a philosophical approach to his work with another pit bull mix puppy, Capone.
“You love them, they love you,” Chavez said of the sometimes anxious or frightened dogs. “You have no fear of them, they’ll have no fear of you.”
Chavez started volunteering at the shelter just a few months prior; he’s filled his retirement with giving back to the community. Michler started volunteering as a large dog walker seven years ago with his wife, Laura. Even during COVID-19 shutdowns, he and his wife stuffed Kongs for the shelter dogs, serving animals they couldn’t interact with.
Michler has continued volunteering at Bradshaw since his wife’s death in 2023. The dogs help him with his grief.
As Freckles pranced around him, Michler said, “Coming here fills a void for me.” When the dog half-hopped into his lap, he smiled. He roots for each animal to get adopted — including Freckles, who found a permanent home last month not long after Michler worked with her on her “manners.”
“You don’t want to see a dog reactive,” he said, wearing an apron with a bag of treats in the pocket. “That kills it for the adopter. They don’t want to see these dogs crazy and jumping up.”
Michler knows that helping the animals learn to behave and trust people makes adoptions happen faster; he also, like the other volunteers, relays information about the dogs and their personalities to Peterson.
Sometimes, they’ll strategize over which animal needs a social-media boost.
“You get favorites and ones that you’re rooting for to find a home,” Peterson said, “I always, on Monday, am so excited to see who got adopted.”
Michler jumped in, agreeing. “Who got adopted, yeah,” he said. “That was like when we had Elroy there. We saw him get adopted, we’re like, ‘Oh my god, thank god.’”
Elroy: 51 pounds, 8 years old, three legs. In November, Peterson began her post about the gray-and-white pit bull by invoking her therapist again: “I’m just going to keep posting this man until he finds his person because, frankly, therapy is getting expensive. Gary (my therapist) says I’m ‘developing attachment tendencies.’”
She added that Elroy was “mellow, loving, polite, and probably more emotionally regulated than I am... Someone please take this sweet man home before my therapist adds a surcharge for ‘Elroy updates.’”
Not long after, someone did take Elroy home.
Senior cats and bonded pairs
Peterson works her magic on cats, too, although she said they usually don’t struggle as much to find homes. She has a soft spot for bonded pairs because she has a rescued pair at home (Atlas and Floyd) and because they’re more likely to linger in the shelter: The idea of adopting two cats at once puts some people off.
The bonded pair she focused on this Monday was Judy and Carver. Peterson said a cat-focused volunteer had described them as “perfect.” They were a little standoffish, but Peterson got her photos — for the cats, she used kissing noises and didn’t resort to cooing.
Her commitment to bonded pairs is strengthened because one of her cats — Atlas — once had to go to the hospital, and the other cat — normally quiet Floyd — wandered around their apartment wailing and looking for Atlas.
Senior cats and cats with health issues also get extra attention from Peterson. In the shelter’s “cat cafe,” she visited with Mrs. Mittens, the only one of three cafe denizens to emerge from a hiding spot. Mrs. Mittens is so tiny that she looks like a kitten, but she’s 10. A scraggly tuxedo cat with a crook in her tail and extra toes on her front paws, she doesn’t so much walk as she sashays. Peterson sat on the floor with her and talked to her. “You’re so skinny,” she said in a baby voice. Mrs. Mittens meowed assertively and rubbed her face on the county employee. Peterson laughed.
“A lot of people think that the shelter’s a sad environment, and it’s really not,” Peterson said. “There are sad moments, and we all have experienced moments of, ‘that’s a tough day.’ But for the most part, to be able to give these animals time in the yards, or to help, in some way, get them adopted, it’s a really joyful environment.”
Peterson had already posted about the bonded pair on the shelter’s social media platforms. She wrote that a cat-focused volunteer who is “our shelter’s official cat whisperer and part-time therapist to emotionally unstable staff (me)” said they were “deeply in love with each other in the way that makes your heart melt. … They’ve waited long enough.”
They didn’t have to wait much longer. By Tuesday afternoon, Carver and Judy were adopted. Someone had picked up elderly Mrs. Mittens, too.
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
