Beth Skogen
Bear and Buster offer quality control at Sharif Harmon’s home bakery where Harmon makes treats for both dogs and humans.
Bear and Buster are running circles around Sharif Harmon in the backyard of his southwest Madison home. He has a handful of snacks that has the mutts mad with anticipation.
“My treats have a 90-percent approval rating among dogs,” Harmon jokes. “The other 10 percent, they didn’t like anything.”
This is quality control at Sharif’s Sweets and Pet Treats, the online cookie and pet-treat bakery Harmon and his girlfriend launched this year, after obtaining a license to run the home bakery where the edibles are prepared to order and shipped the next day.
Although Bear and Buster are the company’s eager taste testers, it’s daughter, Taleah, 4, who has the final say — the treats are suitable for humans and critters.
“If the baby don’t like it, it ain’t selling,” he laughs.
At 49, Harmon finally has a future to look forward to. Beneath his playful sense of humor beats the persistent ache of profound regret — over choices that ended in tragedy for two.
“It’s been tough,” he says. “This is my chance to do right.”
Harmon moved to Madison in 1995, leaving behind the Atlantic City neighborhood where he padded his rap sheet more often than his résumé. The move came after a friend purchased the east-side IHOP and offered him a job as kitchen manager.
Sixteen months later, tragedy struck when Harmon lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree along snow-slicked Mendota Avenue, claiming the life of passenger Cynthia Baker. They had been celebrating her 35th birthday.
“She was the first person I met when I moved here,” he says. “We were best friends.”
In May 1997, he pleaded no contest to homicide by intoxicated driving and served five years in prison.
After his release in 2002, 30-year-old Harmon began cooking at the Marriott West. On May 24, 2004, he got in trouble again, after leaving work with food he hadn’t paid for.
A hotel security guard chased after him, ordering him out of his vehicle. When Harmon refused, the guard reached for the ignition to grab his keys. Harmon drove away as the guard pursued him on foot through the parking lot and into the street.
Later that day, police arrested Harmon, who consented to a blood draw and expected to be released once authorities had verified his sobriety. While waiting, he glanced at the paperwork on a nearby table and the abbreviation HOM — shorthand for homicide — jumped off the page. The security guard, 55-year-old Bill Busch, had died after he tripped and fell while tangling with Harmon. Harmon says he had no idea he’d injured, let alone killed, the man.
“Two homicides?” he says. “I thought my life was over.”
It nearly was. Harmon rejected a 72-year plea deal and put his fate with a jury. He was convicted of homicide by negligent operation and sentenced to 10 years — which Harmon calls “a blessing.”
In prison, he was left with no one to blame but himself. “I was selfish and made a lot of bad choices,” he says. “But I’m not a bad person.”
In 2013, Harmon entered a work program for inmates nearing release, landing a job at the Dane County Humane Society, where inspiration struck. Having learned to bake in prison, he thought, “Maybe I can make dog treats.”
Each evening, back in his cell, he worked on a business plan and developed recipes he then prepared in the prison kitchen, conducting taste tests at the shelter.
Today in his kitchen, Harmon’s optimism remains clouded by the tragedies. Harmon thinks about Cynthia Baker and Bill Busch every day and intends to honor their memories by helping others learn from his mistakes. He is taking steps to become a youth mentor and in September was certified as a peer support specialist.
“I’ve been taking from my family and the community for so long, I want to give back,” says Harmon, who turns 50 in May.
Four-year-old Taleah, who had been playing in the living room, returns to the kitchen with outstretched arms.
Harmon scoops her up and sets her in his lap.
“I want to be an example for this little one,” he says. “She is the future.”
Sharif’s Sweets and Pet Treats offers: cookies and dog treats made from fresh ingredients, using signature recipes.
Ingredients used in each: 5
Farthest shipments to date: Romania and Australia
To order: www.sharifssweetsandpettreats.com
