Friday — February 6, 2004

Valley Realtor
has soft touch

‘Animals take my heart’

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By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

More than once, friends in a moment of jest have asked Sherry Daech, "Would you adopt me?"

As humans, not likely.

But their banter about wanting to be a foundling in Daech’s home stems from her reputation of providing the best for animals in distress and in need of a safe haven.

Wood River Valley Realtor Sherry Daech appears on the winter 2003/2004 cover of Fido Friendly magazine

Daech—arguably among the most successful Wood River Valley real estate executives and certainly the most visible with her cherry-red HumVee emblazoned with bumper plates promoting her Web site address—is a fanatic about pets.

"Business takes my time," Daech said, reciting what passes for a personal creed. "Animals take my heart."

This is not idle talk. Daech puts her money where her mouth is as well as her heart.

She has purchased a seven-carat, emerald-cut diamond that she says is to be auctioned off after her death, with all proceeds to the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley. She also has made provisions in her will for other bequests to the shelter.

The no-kill shelter also is provided a Web site link (www.animalshelterwrv.org) on Daech’s real estate home page (www.sherrydaech.com).

All this devotion to animals has led to Daech being featured in a cover photo on Fido Friendly magazine, published in Fresno, Calif.

She said she met the magazine’s publisher, Susan Sims, when she visited the Sun Valley area two years ago. After the conversation turned to pets, Sims suggested Daech also buy an advertisement in the magazine.

However, that led to an even more audacious proposal—buying the cover of the magazine.

Daech said she paid $6,000 for the color photo cover, plus another $500 for a full-page ad of her company, McCann-Daech-Fenton. Then the magazine assigned writer Jeni Friedrich to provide a story about Daech’s real estate and pet interests.

The story, Daech said, has prompted calls from all over the nation from former customers and friends.

Copies of the magazine also were included in the traditional presenters’ package at the recent Golden Globe Awards.

Amusingly, the cover photo shows four dogs with Daech and her HumVee—although she only owns a cat, Rover, abandoned at her office, then adopted by Daech and provided regal pampering at her home.

"From outhouse to the penthouse," she says of Rover’s lifestyle with a laugh.

Looking over Daech’s résumé offers some hint of her yen to help down-and-outers. When she first came to the Wood River Valley 35 years ago, she lived on sparse resources—first, delivering newspapers, then as a tennis hostess, then as a fledgling entrepreneur when she bought a trailer to live in and then to rent. From there, her real estate career soared over the next 26 years.

Why no canine pets?

"I work seven days a week," she explains. Cats tend to be more self-sufficient.

Nothing is too good for a cat in distress.

Daech remembers one that arrived on her doorstep only a month ago, lost, without a collar and in distress. She arranged for the cat to be treated and kept overnight at the Sun Valley Animal Center.

She then went to KECH radio and arranged to have a "lost cat" notice broadcast.

A few days later, a man called Daech, identified the cat as his that had strayed from home, and retrieved the mouser.

"God looks after us, and our animals," she said.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.