It started with a calendar on the fridge

Our first cat, with us since 2013, was nine the year he was diagnosed with stage 2 chronic kidney disease and hyperthyroidism. He wasn't even a senior yet. Illness arrived like that — without warning.

From that day there was a calendar on the fridge. Circles for fluid days, pen marks for pill times. The kidney meds and the thyroid meds were given at different hours, so a single calendar square filled up fast. Blood test values went into a spreadsheet.

The family chat filled with the same daily questions: "Gave the meds?" "Wait, I just did." Some days he got dosed twice; some days a whole day passed with no one giving them at all. At every vet visit we re-explained everything from the start, and the paper with last month's numbers was never where we thought it was.

In caregiver communities we met people carrying the same weight, each with their own patchwork — notebooks, spreadsheets, memo apps, photo albums. And everyone said the same thing: "My records are scattered, and I can never find them when it matters."

We tried the apps that already existed. But they were built for healthy pets' daily diaries. SubQ fluids, insulin, lab values — the things a sick pet's caregiver needs just weren't there.

I didn't study software. By day I work as an interpreter supporting IT projects. At first I looked for someone to build it, but that didn't work out — so I started building what we needed, piece by piece, with AI tools. Coding, it turns out, is a language job too.

I care for three cats, use the app every day, and build it every day. Our first cat's illness is in its fifth year now, and those five years of records are this app's blueprint.

The process is public on Threads — the wins and the failures.