Writing That Rescue Profile

Copyright © 2007

Writing a profile for that recent rescue lounging around your house? I have a few recommendations to help spark interest in your rescue's listing.

Write your profile to be as complimentary as possible and yet at all times be honest. Do not ignore possible problems with your rescue nor focus only on the negative. Remember - We are interested in ensuring that an adoption is a successful forever adoption - we are not interested in adoption purely for the sake of another adoption.

Be wordy, we do not limit the number of words you can use. This is one instance where being short and concise can weigh against your Malinois foster as much as their actual shortcomings. Touch on your rescue's funny side, serious side and even his bothersome side. People can't see your rescue, so they are relying on you to help paint a picture that begins to merge into something they might be interested in pursuing further. They might be looking for the very physical or personality trait you felt wasn't worthy enough to mention.

Set it aside overnight and when you read it tomorrow, if you are still pleased with the results, submit it to your coordinator. Be available and responsive to their questions and suggestions. They may already have an approved home and need additional input from you to evaluate the suitability of your Malinois to their applicant.

Photos

ALL PHOTOS MUST BE E-MAILED or SNAIL-MAILED TO YOUR COORDINATOR.

The use of digital cameras has become more and more common with foster families because of their convenience. Photos can now be taken and transmitted to their destination in minutes. However; digital cameras have also created some problems that are occasionally insurmountable.

Websites for storing images on the web have cropped up just about everywhere and while they are extremely convenient, many of those sites are in the business of selling prints of the images they store. That means most of those businesses have designed their websites to prevent the casual visitor from downloading your photos. Those not selling prints will block downloading to protect you, the owner of the photo. If you upload your photos to a site that blocks image retrieving, we are unable to do anything more then view them. In addition, not all of the rescue committee have satellite or DSL service. Being sent a link to 30 photos that have to be surfed to individually, in order to try to choose which are best, is just impractical for anyone on a dial-up ISP account.

In order to ensure your photos are usable there are some steps you can take:

Digital Cameras

• Familiarize yourself with your camera. Most have many different options and knowing what settings produce certain results will ensure your photos are a valuable tool for your rescue.
• Cameras do not *see* contrast and color in the same manner that your eyes do. To avoid problems this difference can cause, try to take outdoor photos in full daylight and always use a flash indoors.
• Most digital cameras offer at least 3 different size settings.
  1. The smallest setting produces a photo that is little more then the thumbnails seen on many websites. A photo taken at this setting cannot be used at all.
  2. The middle setting is usually the best for taking the foster's photo. It provides a photo that can be cropped successfully in most cases, can be processed by imaging software, allowing small to moderate imperfections to be corrected, and can be emailed.
  3. The largest setting renders a photo that can be cropped and processed to correct problems that occur; however; the actual digital size is completely impractical for emailing.

Standard Cameras

Once your film has been developed and you have chosen the best photos there are a couple of different ways to send your photos.

• If you own a scanner:
  1. Scan your photo, the best scanning size is usually 50% of the original size, then save it to your hard drive making note of the file name and folder where you save it.
  2. DO NOT choose the option some of the processing programs provide of sending the image as email. Doing so will cause the image processing software to over-process the final image it sends out, many times rendering an image(s) received at the final destination useless. The priority of this option is *not* quality but by a pre-set that adjusts on the ending, emailable, size alone.
  3. Once you have the images saved, open a new email in your email program. The objective is to attach your image(s).
     1. In Outlook you need to go to the menu bar at the top of the new email, select the option that says insert.
     2. In the drop down menu that appears, select File Attachment and then navigate to the folder on your computer where you saved the image(s).
     3. Select the image(s) you want to attach to your email. Multiple images can be selected by holding down your ctrl key as you click on each image.
     4. Click on the attach button and a new line will appear in your email displaying the images you selected.

• No Scanner:
  1. Contact your coordinator to find out where you need to snail mail copies of your photos.

As webmaster I am committed to presenting your rescue in the best possible way; however, I am only as good as your profile and photos make me. I hope the above information will help make our combined efforts successful.