Add a pet

Pets generate a genuine, daily, repeating workload that tends not to be counted when a household argues about who does what.

1. More → Pets → Add pet.
2. Add their name and what kind of animal they are. From version 1.16.0 of the app, everything else on their page is optional too: a photo, their date of birth, their vet, health and ID, allergies, and anything else good to know.
3. Open the pet and tap Add care routine for each kind of care it needs: feeding, walking, litter, medication. Put how it’s done in How to do it: “two scoops of the light biscuits”, “half a tablet in some ham”.

Their page

From version 1.16.0 of the app: their page, sharing with a sitter, their birthday and reminders, and their documents, below.

Each pet has a page of their own, with their photo (or an emoji for their species until you add one) and their next birthday at the top. Tap the photo to take a new one or choose one. Below that are cards for:

• Care: each routine with how it’s done, then their allergies and anything else good to know.
• Vet: the practice, the vet’s name, their phone number and an out-of-hours number, each with a button to call, and the address with Directions.
• Health & ID: their microchip number, insurer and policy number, when the insurance renews, and when their vaccinations and flea & worm treatment are next due.
• Documents: their insurance, vaccination record, microchip certificate or passport.

Tap a routine to change how it’s done. The change reaches its chores that aren’t done yet. To change anything else, tap the pencil at the top of their page.

How to do it

How much food, which tablet and how to give it: that belongs with the routine that does it. It shows on every chore the routine makes, so whoever has the job, including a child on their own board, sees it at the moment they need it. There’s no separate food or medication box saying the same thing somewhere else.

Share with a sitter

The share button at the top of their page sends their routines with how to do each, their allergies, what’s good to know, their vet and their microchip number as one message, ready for a sitter, a neighbour or a grandparent.

Birthdays and reminders

Their birthday goes on the family calendar as a yearly Birthday event, and moves if you change their date of birth. Their next vaccinations and flea & worm treatment each go on the calendar as a Health event on the day they’re due.

When their insurance renews goes in Renewals, next to the car and the house. Marking it renewed there updates the date on their page too.

Documents

Documents you add from their page go in a Pets folder in Family Documents, so they’re in one place with everything else. The folder is made the first time you add one, and the whole family can see it.

From Family Documents files one you’ve already uploaded against the pet. One that was Unfiled moves into the Pets folder; one you’d already put in a folder of your own stays there. Deleting a pet leaves their documents in Family Documents.

It becomes real work

Feeding, walking, litter, medication and vet appointments become tasks like anything else — which means they carry difficulty, they can repeat, and they appear in the Fairness Score.

The household that says “the dog is no trouble” is usually a household where one person walks it twice a day.

Children and pets

Pet chores are often a child’s first real responsibility, and they work well with pocket money.

To give a care routine to one person, tap their face under Who does it when you add it; Anyone leaves it to be shared out. A child whose age is not set yet is shown faded, with Add their age first: the app needs it to know which jobs suit them.