PHOENIX — A local volunteer is using photography to help thousands of shelter cats find their forever homes across the Phoenix metro area.
Jen Parjol created the project and social media page @meowphx almost nine years ago after moving to Arizona. Volunteering her time, she wanted to amplify her impact by taking higher-quality pictures of cats she met at local shelters.
“I take pictures of between six and eight hundred cats a year, so carry the math over. It's about six thousand cats, adoptable cats,” Jen said.
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Her work helps shelters manage their feline populations by making the animals more appealing to potential adopters.
“The fact that we're not busting at the seams of kittens right now does have a lot to do with Jen,” said Volunteer Program Coordinator for Pinal County Animal Care and Control Sienna Yanez-Brokeshoulder. “She has really highlighted the cats, has made them a lot more adoptable, which has definitely helped out a ton.”
Equipped with only an iPhone and a variety of 1-yard felt fabrics, Jen captures the personalities of each cat she meets. “I try so hard to describe the personalities. Are they shy? Are they bold? Are they funny? Are they silly,” Jen said.
Jen is also a member of HeARTs Speak, a global network of photographers who provide pro bono work for animal shelters.
She encourages others to use their creativity to give back to their communities.
For Jen, the mission is personal. She shares her home with four shelter cats and views her photography as a way to give back to the volunteers who cared for her pets before she adopted them.
"The end goal isn't my Instagram. It's to get the cats adopted and to get them photos here at the shelter first," Jen said.
"I have all shelter cats in my home. I know that somebody did this for them. So it's a bit of a paying it forward because I appreciate the volunteers that went in and cuddled my cats before they were my cats. It's doing the same thing to somebody else's future cats.”
To support Jen and her project, follow her on Facebook and Instagram at @meowphx.
