Thursday, March 17, 2022

There's a Camera in Your Pocket

Our local Facebook group basically covers four areas: people asking for recommendations when a simple Google search would be better; complaining about local politics, particularly the "wheel tax" and how we still have lots of potholes despite paying this tax; complaining about services at our local businesses and/or lamenting about how we need to bring businesses to town (although WHY any business would want to come to town when local residents are so antagonistic towards the already existing ones is anyone's guess); and posting about missing pets.

I mostly follow the page because of the lost pets.

But, dear readers, I want to say one thing. It is the year of Our Lord 2022 and if you don't have a well lit, in-focus photo of your pet that shows the following things, take out your phone and TAKE ONE. For heaven's sake.

1. The size of your animal. Don't show me a photo that is mostly a white room with your pet in the corner. How am I supposed to know if that dog is 15 pounds or 150?  

2. Your animal's body shape. Again, a photo of your dog laying down is not helpful to me since the chances are pretty good that if I do see them, they'll be running away. Is your pet trim? Stocky? Fuzzy? 

3. The age of your animal. The number of people who seem to think it's okay to post a picture of their pet when they were four months old (he's three now!) is insane. Your dog doesn't look like that anymore!

4. Any unusual markings. Does your missing cat have a heart-shaped patch on its back? SHOW US.  I recently saw a post with a dog laying down in the corner of a giant room and it said "has an unusual pattern of fur on its left side" with no further elaboration.  Don't even get me started on those absolutely adorable photos of your pet looking straight at the camera that makes their muzzles look ginormous, but tells you absolutely nothing about what else the dog looks like. WTF?

I know that I probably take more photos of my girls than the average person, what with having no children and nothing better to do with my days than follow them around like a puparazzo, but THERE IS A CAMERA ON YOUR PHONE. I'm not asking for professional photographs, but would it kill you to have just a few okayish photos of your pet? After one these posts with subpar photos came up recently, I joked with Dr. BB that I've taken a dozen photos in the last week of Hannah the Dog on my phone that I haven't deemed good enough, but that would serve as a missing dog photo just fine.  Argh.  

Here are a few of these mediocre photos.

1) On the dock. I don't love the lighting in this one - the shadows prevent you from seeing her colors really well. But this is serviceable - you can see how big she is, her giant ears, and that she's pretty slim.  It's not a photo I'd normally share with the world, but it would get the job done.


2) At the library. This isn't ideal because it cuts off her rear end, but you can still see her body shape here. Also, this is in front of the library and local people would be able to know how big she is because those silver sculptures are local landmarks of sorts. 


3) Hannah's got a stick. I would actually share this photo because I think it's cute when Hannah does dog-like things. She LOVES sticks, but will only play with them if you give them to her. She doesn't like to pick things off the ground, which is a perk since I'd rather she be cautious than put every piece of trash or other dog poop in her mouth, but if you hand her a stick, she gets super pumped. I think this photo is less ideal because you don't get the true scope of her ear size, but it would do in case of an emergency. (LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS WITH A STICK IN HER MOUTH. I am ridiculous.)


I mean, let's be real. I have dozens of photos I could use - why don't people have JUST ONE?

And, speaking of photos to use, I was recently listening to a podcast in which the host sort of wondered out loud if the picture that would be used in his obituary had already been taken. Like, if he died tomorrow, it's probably out there already, but if he dies twenty years from now, will they use one that will be taken in the next twenty years or just one from his younger years? It's a morbid thought, but now I can't stop thinking about it. If it comes up in the near future, I'd like one of the following as my obituary photo.




Also, I'll be dead, so what do I care? But I like that I'm basically holding Hannah down in both of these photos. Forget my husband, LOOK HOW MUCH I LOVED MY DOG.

I don't even know what the point of this post is. Do you ever think about what photo will be used in your obituary? Does your local Facebook page include rants about taxes and include abysmal photos of lost animals?  

14 comments:

  1. I'm not on social media now but when I was, the only local group I was a member of was for our block. My husband is still on FB so he can keep me up to date on anything he sees on that group but it's not an annoying group to be a part of. The local group you describe would drive me absolutely batty!!! We do occasionally see postings hung in our neighborhood for lost pets and it always seems to be for a cat. I haven't thought about the pictures/quality of the picture, though. But with cats, I feel the likelihood of us finding them and being able to get ahold of said cat is so unlikely! So I keep an eye out to some extent, but am usually skeptical that the cat will be found. :( We don't have a lot of pictures of our cat since we had kids, but she also is at my MILs so much - at least half the year these days. So there haven't been a lot of opportunities to take pictures and she hasn't changed much since the last picture I took of her!

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    1. I used to be really skeptical about cats being returned, but I have a friend whose cat was gone for two weeks when they managed to catch her in a live trap! I have since become much more of an optimist than ever!

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  2. I haven't thought about what would be my obit photo, but I have about the cat, because when I was reading up about hurricane preparedness, there were specific suggestions about pets. It advised that you make up a flyer ahead of time, in case your pet got away from you when you're on the road: specifically, using photos taken from more than one side, and ideally with the people and pet in the same photos as extra proof that yes, this is my pet. While I think this is probably overkill, it still made me feel better to do it. Mind you, I could show anyone my phone with the thousands of photos of Maggie as proof that she's mine! (Or I'm hers.) This is making me want to blog Maggie From All Sides.

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    1. 1. I really would enjoy a Maggie From All Sides post.
      2. I hadn't really thought about having something ready for an emergency or natural disaster. I'm going to make a flyer up for both of my girls now!

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  3. You are not being ridiculous - that photo of Hannah with a stick is her mouth is adorable (as are all the other pictures of her).
    What a great idea, too, about making sure you have current photos of your pet and relevant identifying details. Having never owned a pet, that would never cross my mind...but is clearly genius.

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    1. I mean, I think this same thing holds true for children. If the most recent photo of your kid is from months or years ago, take a new one! I know not everyone has a blog or Instagram to update, and some people want to live in the moment and not always be attached to their phones, but just have a recent photo of your kid!

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  4. We have many local FB groups. The most active one is the photo group. Another, although wider than just our town, is a COVID/Climate Change group. Climate Change got added as COVID slowed down, but there is still plenty of C too. I haven't seen much ranting on those or other groups. And there are ways to silence offenders, particularly on the camera group as I am a moderator. :)

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    1. Ha! I kind of like that our local group is really focused on local issues. I know that a lot of it is people ranting, but I think it gives me a good idea of the pulse of the community. If all we have to complain about is potholes, I think we're doing okay. I wouldn't want to silence too many of them because they are exactly the kind of people who are going to bring out any real issues.

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  5. I agree that the picture of Hannah with the stick is so cute! And I vote for the one with just your faces for the obituary pic (ha ha... interesting thought. I definitely don't have a good one.)
    I do have a ton of pictures of my pets, but now i'm wondering if I could do better. One of my cats is all black and that would make it pretty hard to identify her. But she has a patch on her stomach where the hair is very thin (no one knows why, including the vet) and I usually keep that out of pictures. I should get a really good picture of her and her stomach, because that's what would set her apart if someone wanted to identify her. Thanks for this PSA!

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    1. Yes! Get a photo of her belly ASAP! I mean, you don't have to show it to anyone unless there's an emergency, which is very unlikely, but if these FB posts have taught me anything, it's that the unlikely can happen.

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  6. Awww, your dog is so sweet! I never worry about Barkley getting lost as he's way too old to run away. However, I have lots of photos of him because he's so cute.

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    1. I don't really worry about either one of the cat or dog running away, honestly. But these posts remind me that animals can be unpredictable, so it's better to be safe than sorry!

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  7. This is such a good PSA! I have soooo many photos of my girls and soooo many photos of the dogs. Chip and Lucy are runaway artists so I'm always so worried about them getting lost. The girls, not so much - but you never know!

    All of these photos of Hannah are so cute! I just want to give her a big hug.

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  8. Thank God I am not in a local Facebook Group, but I guess the Next Door App is the equivalent? Same topics, so many lost pets!

    I love the photos of Hannah. She's photogenic! (And no, I haven't thought about the photo for my obituary. LOL Maybe if I ever get a pet, I will).

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