When a pet is admitted to a shelter it can be a traumatizing experience. Many are afraid of their new surroundings and are far from comfortable showing off their unique personalities. The problem is that's when many of them have their photos taken to appear in online searches.
Chewy, the pet retailer who has dedicated themselves to supporting shelters and rescues throughout the country, recognized the important work of a couple in Tampa, FL who have been taking professional photos of shelter pets to help get them adopted.
"If it's a photo of a scared animal, most people, subconsciously or even consciously, are going to skip over it," pet photographer Adam Goldberg says. "They can't visualize that dog in their home."
Adam realized the importance of quality shelter photos while working as a social media specialist for the Humane Society of Broward County in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"The photos were taken top-down so you couldn't see the size of the pet, and the flash would create these red eyes," he recalls. "Sometimes [volunteers] would shoot the photos through the chain-link fences."
That's why Adam and his wife, Mary, have spent much of their free time over the past five years photographing over 1,200 shelter animals to show off their unique personalities to potential adoptive families. The Goldbergs' wonderful work was recently profiled by Chewy in the video above entitled, "A Day in the Life of a Shelter Pet Photographer."
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A 4-year-old called in the New Zealand police because he wanted to show them his toys
4-year-old New Zealand boy and police share toys.
Sometimes the adorableness of small children is almost too much to take.
According to the New Zealand Police, a 4-year-old called the country's emergency number to report that he had some toys for them—and that's only the first cute thing to happen in this story.
After calling 111 (the New Zealand equivalent to 911), the preschooler told the "police lady" who answered the call that he had some toys for her. "Come over and see them!" he said to her.
The dispatcher asked where he was, and then the boy's father picked up. He explained that the kids' mother was sick and the boy had made the call while he was attending to the other child. After confirming that there was no emergency—all in a remarkably calm exchange—the call was ended. The whole exchange was so sweet and innocent.
But then it went to another level of wholesome. The dispatcher put out a call to the police units asking if anyone was available to go look at the 4-year-old's toys. And an officer responded in the affirmative as if this were a totally normal occurrence.
Is this what life is like in New Zealand? Practically no COVID-19 to speak of and police units casually dropping by kids' houses to check out their toys?
Listen to the call shared by New Zealand Police:
Child calls 111 to show Police their toys | New Zealand Police www.youtube.com
The New Zealand Police wrote on YouTube, "Constable Kurt from Southern District Police responded by arriving at the child's house and was shown an array of toys. He also had a good educational chat with the child and his parents about only using 111 for emergencies." The officer also showed the boy his patrol car, put the lights on for him and remarked, "He did have cool toys!"
Lovely exchanges all around, from the kind emergency dispatcher, to the clearly exhausted dad, to the officer going out of his way to look at a random kid's toys, to the precious little kiwi who kicked off the whole chain of events with his thoughtful offer.
Add this to the ever-growing list of reasons to love New Zealand.
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