About
How Pawtner was born
I have a shepherd with a fragile stomach and a calico cat with fragile lungs.
Every vet visit starts with careful observation and notes on their symptoms. If we switch clinics, I also have to bring every test report and prescription from the previous ones, and tell the whole story again from the beginning.
Before I knew it, the stack of reports and prescriptions was three centimetres thick, awkward to store and awkward to carry.
"Isn't there an app that keeps all their visits, medications and reports in one place? Ideally with daily symptoms too, so I wouldn't have to retell the story every time or carry a pile of paper." I thought.
So I went looking. I tried apps from developers all over the world, and every one was missing something I considered essential.
That's when the thought took hold: if it doesn't exist, I'll build it.
To make sure this wasn't just my problem, I ran a survey and heard back from 92 families.
Asked "What frustrates you most about looking after your furry friend's health?", 49 people ticked "organising and keeping paper medical records". Ranked even higher were two things I hadn't expected but knew all too well: "recurring symptoms are hard to track" (54 people) and "health status and history are hard to keep organised" (50 people).
It turns out we were all caring for our furry friends from memory.
And so, Pawtner was born.
Our vision
I want this app to be a digital health passbook for furry friends, a piggy bank for their health:
The more detailed the records, the earlier you spot something unusual, and the more precisely you can describe it at the vet.
Furry friends have no health insurance, so much of their history survives only if their families keep it.
They can't speak, and many small changes are almost impossible to notice without daily records to compare against.
If Pawtner lets families spend less time organising paperwork and more time with their furry friends,
so that every limited moment goes somewhere more meaningful, I'll be very happy.
The story of Mao
Mao comes from Planet 3865, a cold world halfway between Planet Woof and Planet Meow.
The people of Planet 3865 adore the vivid, big-hearted residents of Woof and Meow. Over centuries of contact, "protecting these pure souls" gradually became their mission.
For every furry friend setting off for Earth they open a "departure file", and on the way home they complete a "return record". And every resident of Planet 3865, on coming of age, must travel to Earth in person to draw on that vast archive of return records and watch over furry friends' health here.
Mao arrived on Earth with the 203rd cohort.
About Mao
Knows cats and dogs best. Mao cares about other furry (and furless) friends too, such as rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles, but won't take on what he isn't yet sure of.
His glasses were hand-calibrated and built by the planet's oldest engineer before departure; without them he can't cope with Earth's different air pressure. After landing and putting them on, the first thing Mao saw clearly was an orange cat yawning by the roadside.
When beings from Planet 3865 arrive on Earth, each may conjure one human body part or tool on top of their head. Mao chose a human hand. His friends back home quietly agree he'd decided before leaving: he wanted a hand that could pet furry friends.
Occasionally says "recently", but Mao's "recently" may mean three years ago.
