Shelter cat bios and photos are important in improving adoption rates. This is a nice example of a novel and imaginative shelter cat bio. Dave is an absolutely middle of the road domestic cat. He’s a standard brown tabby. He is not a standout cat at a shelter but he’ll make a damned good companion and that’s the point of this imaginative bio written by a shelter worker.
Good, clean photos which clearly show the cat’s appearance combined with a great bio certainly enhances the chances of getting adopted. And that’s what it is all about.
There is one section missing in Dave’s bio: the coat pattern. Looking at the photo it would seem to be a mackerel tabby (striped tabby).
He has a nice masculine face. He’ll be a rock-solid companion to the lucky adopters.
The way to adopt a good domestic cat companion from a shelter is to focus on the character and not so much on the appearance. There is definitely an over emphasis a shelter cat appearance. It feeds the human fascination with appearance and the way their ‘possessions’ look. It is better to look under the hood and go for the cat who you think has the best character to be a great companion.
Within 6 months the glamorous appearance of the good-looking cats becomes less noticeable but the personality of a cat grows on you over the cat’s lifetime. Personality is more enduring than appearance. And personality colours appearance. If a cat has a great personality, they look great too even if they are middle of the road.
I think that it pays for a shelter manager to employ workers who are either skilled with photographer or words or both (plus the usual animal and shelter skills and knowledge). You need to know a bit about photography to capture eye-catching photos. And you need to know how to stimulate a cat to show their best side. Do what Helmi Flick (cat photographer) does: in a shelter one worker should take the photo while the other wrangles and stimulates the cat with a cat tease. Make those eyes sparkle.
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