Ann Cheers founded Cheers' Pottery in historic Stevensville, Maryland, in 1994 after working for many years at Annapolis Pottery, also in Maryland, and for various potters in Bermuda and the Caribbean. In 2001 she met her husband, Jon Terry a chef from Aspen, Colorado then living in Montauk, on New York's Long Island through a personals ad online. 

They 'talked' for months online and found that they had just about everything in common. Both are vegetarians and animal lovers and the kind of people that most other people find to be a bit weird, but still very nice. They smile a lot and Jon talks too much. If they meet you and your pet, they will probably be more interested in your pet. If you're a pet person, you'll understand.

 Ann was operating Cheers' Pottery in a large, pink Victorian house in the historic district since 1994. This made Cheers' Pottery the longest running business in the town at the time Jon arrived there in spring of 2001. Ann was overworked and overstressed operating a business that no longer inspired her, he had been working in restaurants for 14 years and wasn't enjoying it anymore. They both needed a change, and Jon couldn't stop talking about how nice it was in Colorado. After moving in, he took over the cooking and started working with Ann in her pottery business, first taking over the menial jobs that bogged Ann down and gradually becoming more and more involved as his skills and knowledge of pottery grew until Cheers' Pottery became a team effort.

Ann made a lot of pet-oriented pottery at that time, mainly the dog and cat mugs and treat jars that we still sell and which became the basis for our pet urn business