[{"content":"I’m living for a while in Puerto Escondido, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, in a house with a lot of cats. Some are pets. Some are strays. Some are of unknown origin. The owner of the house is in Italy, so while I’m here, I look after them.\nNinja, Ciccio and Mika Ella, with a black-and-white friend. Pets, strays, or somewhere in between? I buy their food out of my own pocket. Sometimes I pay for a vet visit, or deworming medication. Nobody asked me to — it’s just what you do when a cat is sitting at your door looking at you.\nI’m sure I’m not the only person in the world doing this. In fact I think there are a lot of us: people quietly becoming informal custodians of cats we don’t technically own. We feed them, we recognise individuals, we notice when one disappears or gets sick, we pay for sterilisation or vet care — usually with no coordination with the other people doing exactly the same thing a few streets away.\nThe question Most systems for animals assume every cat needs an owner. But what if the more useful starting point is simply this:\nA cat with an identity, a history, and a network of people who care about it.\nIdentify the cat. Create its record. Let every human encounter after that add to its shared history.\nThat feels like the seed of something. I don’t yet know what it grows into — this blog is where I’m going to find out, in public, with your help.\n(I’m focusing on cats for now. Dogs are welcome eventually — they’re just a different type of cat.)\n","date":"Oct 3, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/the-cats-nobody-owns/","section":"Stories","summary":"Where this idea started: a house full of cats in Puerto Escondido, and a question about who looks after them.","title":"The cats nobody owns"},{"content":"When I arrived in Puerto Escondido I didn’t know any of the cats. Then people started introducing me to them. I learned their names, and their stories. Now I have many names and many stories.\nWhen someone new arrives, I tell them those stories and share the names. That’s how the knowledge spreads — person to person, over dinner, on the doorstep. But it doesn’t spread much further than that.\nI also started an Instagram account, @mimos_cat_sanctuary, to show off the cats: their beauty, their characters, the funny videos. Instagram is great for that. But it isn’t built around the cat — it’s built around me, the account holder. It can’t let the next caretaker inherit what I know and keep adding to it.\nCiccio and Tenkilo. Every one of them has a name, a story and a personality. Right now, those live in my head and on Instagram. I’ve already built the system — by hand Looking at it now, I’ve been running a cat-tracking system all along. The database is human memory, storytelling and Instagram. Each cat gradually picks up an identity: a name, photographs, a personality, relationships, a territory, a health history, origin stories, encounters.\nThe problem is that all of it lives inside individual people, and when those people leave, the knowledge disappears.\nA first principle The cat persists while the humans around it come and go — so the record should belong, conceptually, to the cat, not to any particular caretaker.\nThe opportunity isn’t just “tracking stray cats”. It’s a persistent, shared story for a cat, whoever is looking after it today: a neighbor, a new adopter, someone who had to give it up, or the person who takes over when its owner dies.\n","date":"Oct 3, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/the-cat-outlives-us/","section":"Stories","summary":"Everything I know about these cats lives in my head and on Instagram. When I leave, it leaves with me.","title":"The cat outlives its caretakers"},{"content":"Some of the cats that visit me are obviously being fed very well somewhere else. I don’t know where. I don’t know whether those people think of the cat as their pet, or as a stray they happen to feed. And I don’t know what they call it — so I’ve given it my own name. Which means these cats now have several names.\nImagine one physical cat:\nTo me, it’s Ninja. Three streets away, someone calls it Naranja. To the restaurant on the corner, it’s an unnamed stray. To a family nearby, it’s Milo, their beloved outdoor pet. All of those perspectives can be true at the same time.\nWhat this tells us A cat’s identity can’t be its name, its location, or its owner — because all three are ambiguous. Underneath, there has to be a single cat, with many human claims attached:\nI call this cat Ninja. I see it here, most mornings. I feed it. I think it’s a stray. I think it belongs to someone. I last saw it on Tuesday. And the important bit: the system shouldn’t force everyone to agree too early. It should gather evidence, and over time recognise that what looked like separate records are probably the same cat.\nThat changes the idea from a cat directory into something more interesting: a way to piece together the fragmented truth about an animal from many independent human encounters.\nDo you know a cat with more than one name? I’d love to hear about it.\n","date":"Oct 3, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/many-names-one-cat/","section":"Stories","summary":"Some of ‘my’ cats are clearly well fed somewhere else. I don’t know where, or what those people call them.","title":"Ninja, Naranja, or Milo? Many names, one cat"},{"content":"We live in a time of incredibly rich technology and very mature development tools. I think the moment has come for something like this to exist. But it’ll take time and resources, and I’m not going to start coding today. For a while, this is going to be all talk.\nThat’s on purpose. Writing code now would constrain the thinking. The most valuable work right now is figuring out what the system is before deciding how software should represent it.\nSo for now there’s:\nno product plan no MVP no business model no commitments Just following whichever question seems most interesting, and seeing where it leads. Along the way I expect to uncover the building blocks the system will need to understand.\nWhy a blog, and why this one I wanted somewhere to share these ideas and get feedback — and I wanted to own the platform completely, rather than put it on Facebook or another algorithm-driven social network. So this is a simple website of its own, with short posts and a way to reply directly.\nI’m not pitching an app here. Each post starts with something real — a cat, a name, a caretaker, a vet bill, a disappearance — and follows the question it raises. If you recognise the problem because you’re living it too, you’re exactly who I’d like to hear from. The unfinished thinking is the interesting part.\n","date":"Oct 3, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/all-talk-no-code/","section":"Stories","summary":"Why I’m deliberately not building anything yet.","title":"All talk, no code (for now)"},{"content":"Every project needs a name, even a temporary one. It doesn’t need to be commercially perfect — it just needs to capture the idea and make me smile.\nSome of the contenders:\nCatena — Latin for “chain”: a chain of encounters and shared knowledge, and it starts with “Cat”. Catlas — an atlas of cats. Catkin — cats connected through relationships. WhiskerNet, Nine Lives Network, and the wonderfully literal Who’s This Cat? Straybook — I like it, but it sounds like a Facebook spin-off, and that’s pretty much the opposite of what I want this to be. In the end I settled on the simplest one: StrayCats.\nEveryone knows straight away what it’s about. It doesn’t pretend to know what the finished product will be. And I like the irony in it: we call the animal a stray cat, but this whole project might end up showing that it isn’t really stray at all. It has a whole network of humans, places, names and relationships around it.\nSo, StrayCats it is — for now. If you have a better name, tell me.\n","date":"Oct 3, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/naming-the-thing/","section":"Stories","summary":"Every project needs a code name. Here’s how this one got its name.","title":"Naming the thing: StrayCats"},{"content":"When someone new arrives at the house, I introduce them to the cats. This is Ciccio. That’s Tenkilo, in the sun as usual. The orange-and-white one by the bowl? We call it Mountain Lion; nobody knows its real name.\nAnd when people meet a cat, they take a photo. Almost everyone does. It’s the most natural thing in the world.\nThen the photo disappears into a camera roll, somewhere between a receipt and a sunset. The name I told them fades. The cat goes back to being “a black cat I saw in Mexico”.\nWhat if the photo was the introduction? Imagine taking that photo and, a few seconds later, getting the cat’s card:\nCiccio Black A girl, whatever her name suggests. Curls up with Mika Ella. Mountain Lion Orange and white A nickname. Real name unknown. Tenkilo Cream Named for weighing almost ten kilos. Clearly fed somewhere else too. A name, a coat, one thing worth knowing. If the cat is already known, you meet it properly: here’s what other people know about it. If it isn’t, you’re the first, and your photo is the start of its story.\nThat would be a lovely thing for the person holding the phone. But the real point is the cat. Every one of those photos is an encounter: one more piece of the cat’s history, one more person who recognises it, maybe one more person who notices when it’s thin, or limping, or gone.\nFun is the doorway, not the destination I want meeting a cat to feel like a small gift, because that’s how people will keep doing it. But it’s easy to imagine what happens if “fun” takes over: the most photogenic cats get the attention, and attention isn’t always good for a cat that lives on the street. A cat’s exact spot becomes something anyone can find. A cat becomes an attraction.\nSo the rule I keep coming back to is simple: if a fun feature and the cat’s wellbeing ever disagree, the cat wins. No rankings. No exact spots. No photos floating around without the cat’s story attached.\nI’ve written up the details in a new idea page, Meeting a Cat. What would make you stop and record a cat you meet? And what should a cat’s card never show?\n","date":"Oct 4, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/a-photo-is-an-introduction/","section":"Stories","summary":"When people meet a cat, they take a photo. What if that photo introduced them to the cat, and the cat to everyone who could help it?","title":"A photo is an introduction"},{"content":"When I first came to the house, Ninja was skin and bone. A little orange tomcat, missing fur, covered in wounds, fighting the other cats every night: you could hear him screaming. He wouldn’t let me anywhere near him. He clearly hadn’t met many kind humans for a while.\nNot everyone who loves cats can afford to feed every cat that turns up, and some cats end up going without. Ninja was one of them.\nSo I started feeding him at night. Before long he was coming to my door, then sleeping at my door, because he knew I was there. Little by little his fear of me faded.\nNow he’s the talk of the town. Friends and family of the house come by and ask, “Is that Ninja?” and then, “He looks so good!”\nNinja Orange and white Not Mountain Lion, though they're easy to mix up. What Ninja taught me Loving cats and affording them are different things. In a place where money is tight, a person can care deeply about every cat in the yard and still not be able to feed them all, or pay for sterilisation. That’s not a failure of love. It’s exactly the gap a care network could fill: someone else might be able to share the cost, or the food, or the vet bill.\nOne person can change a cat’s life, and then leave. Ninja is thriving because someone had the time and the means to feed him every night. But I’m only here for a while. When I go, who will know that Ninja eats at night, or that he was once in such a bad way? That’s the whole reason for StrayCats: the cat outlives its caretakers.\nWhen feeding stops, cats notice fast. On the hard days, when Saibo was ill and when I was sick myself, feeding slipped. The cats started hunting and biting almost immediately. Being fed regularly is the difference between a calm cat and a desperate one.\nDo you know a cat like Ninja, one who was turned around by someone who simply kept showing up? I’d love to hear about it.\n","date":"Oct 5, 2026","permalink":"http://straycats.love/posts/ninja-the-talk-of-the-town/","section":"Stories","summary":"Ninja was skin and bone when I arrived. Not everyone who loves cats can afford to feed them all, so what happens to the ones left over?","title":"Ninja, the talk of the town"},{"content":"Before software can represent a world, you have to understand that world. These are the concepts that keep coming up:\nConcept What it means here Cat The actual animal. It exists whether or not anyone has recorded it correctly. Identity What makes this cat this cat. Not its name, location or owner, which can all be ambiguous. Encounter A moment when a person sees, feeds, photographs or treats a cat. The basic unit of knowledge. Meeting The simplest encounter: someone meets a cat and takes its photo. The way in for most people. Card How a cat is shown and shared: photo, names, coat, neighbourhood, and only what’s safe to show. Place Where encounters happen: a house, a street, a restaurant, a territory. Person Anyone who meets the cat: caretaker, neighbour, visitor, vet, rescuer. Care Feeding, shelter, deworming, sterilisation, vet visits — and who pays for them. Health What we know about the cat’s condition over time. History The growing record of everything above, from birth to death (with an obituary), which belongs to the cat. Relationship Cat ↔ person, cat ↔ place, cat ↔ cat (mothers, litters, rivals, companions). Trust How confident we are in a claim, and in the person making it. Principles so far The cat persists, the humans come and go. The record belongs to the cat, not to any caretaker. Identity ≠ name, location or ownership. All three are ambiguous. Don’t force agreement too early. Gather claims and evidence, and let the truth emerge. No one has to be the owner. A cat can simply have a network of people who care about it. Cats first. Dogs come later (they’re just a different type of cat). Meeting, not owning. People meet cats; no one owns or claims them. Fun is the doorway, not the destination. Meeting a cat should be a pleasure, but every feature is there for the cat’s benefit. If fun and the cat’s safety disagree, the cat wins. Listen: the whole idea in depth A 38-minute audio deep dive: the stories from Puerto Escondido, then the ideas, the building blocks and the open questions, and what’s new in this version. It was made with Google’s NotebookLM from the pages on this site, so the two voices are AI-generated. There’s also a 90-second introduction to the whole idea.\nDownload the audio Speed 1× 1.5× Remembering the Cats Nobody Owns, an audio deep dive (38 minutes) Open questions Which of these concepts is missing, or should be merged into another? Is “Encounter” really the basic unit, or is it “Claim”? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/the-building-blocks/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Twelve concepts the system will need to understand, long before anyone writes code.","title":"The Building Blocks"},{"content":"Background: A photo is an introduction\nThe idea When people meet a cat, most of them take a photo. That photo is the easiest way in there will ever be, so StrayCats should start there:\nSee a cat, take one photo. That’s the whole first step. No form to fill in. Get the cat’s card in seconds: its photo, a name, its coat, and where it was met, at the level of the neighbourhood, never the exact spot. If the cat is already known, meet it properly. “This might be Mountain Lion. Real name unknown. Others have met this cat here too.” You learn its story instead of starting from nothing. If nobody has met it yet, you’re the first. You can give it a name, and your name for it joins the others; it doesn’t replace them. You can start with just a nickname: no email, no password. And every card starts from a real photo of a real cat that someone actually met.\nCats you’ve met Everyone who uses StrayCats would keep a list of the cats they’ve met. Not cats they own or have claimed: cats they’ve met. It’s a small, warm thing to look back on, and it’s the start of a relationship with each one.\nThese are the cats I’ve met at the house, as cards might show them:\nCarlitos Grey tabby Skittish and not neutered. After months, finally lets me touch him. Ciccio Black A girl, whatever her name suggests. Curls up with Mika Ella. Hootie Black, with a collar The collar says someone's looking out for Hootie. Who? Lucia Calico A black patch over one eye. Mika Ella Tabby and white Curls up with Ciccio. Mountain Lion Orange and white A nickname. Real name unknown. Ninja Orange and white Not Mountain Lion, though they're easy to mix up. Tenkilo Cream Named for weighing almost ten kilos. Clearly fed somewhere else too. Sharing a cat You could send a cat’s card to a friend in a message, or to the next person who’ll be looking after the house. They can then follow that cat: see when it’s been met again, and its story as it grows. A card only ever shows what’s safe to share (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety).\nYou could also see cats being met in other towns and countries: a gentle window on how many people, everywhere, are quietly looking out for cats. Only the area is ever shown, and only after a delay, so it can never lead anyone to a cat.\nLearning to see cats Once you start meeting cats, you start seeing them: the tabby’s M on the forehead, the tuxedo’s white chest, the calico’s three colours, the notched ear. StrayCats could help people learn coats and markings a little at a time, and keep track of the ones they’ve met.\nThat isn’t only for fun. Coats and markings are exactly what helps tell one cat from another (see Cat Identity \u0026 Multiple Names). The more people notice, the better everyone gets at recognising each cat.\nGentle reasons to look A few light prompts could make a walk a chance to notice the cats around you: “Have you seen Ninja this week?”, “Meet a cat on a street you don’t usually walk.” Cats met while travelling could be kept too: the cat outside a café in another town is part of someone’s memory, and part of that cat’s story.\nWhat it’s for The pleasure of meeting a cat is the doorway, not the destination. Every meeting is an encounter, and every encounter quietly helps the cat:\nIt adds to the cat’s history, so the next person inherits what’s known. It helps recognise the cat: “Is this Mountain Lion?” is a moment of fun for one person and a confirmed match for the cat’s record. It can carry a quick note about the cat’s wellbeing: looks thin, limping, ear tipped (already sterilised), new kittens nearby. That’s what the care network needs to know. It shows who cares: a cat met by many people has many people who might help. What it won’t do No popularity contests. No rankings, no “most-met cat”, nothing that turns a cat into an attraction. Attention can put a cat at risk. No exact spots. Cards show the neighbourhood, never the exact place where a cat lives or eats, and never landmarks that give it away. No public photo links. Photos are shown inside cards, never as open links anyone can pass around. Never at the cat’s expense. If a fun feature and the cat’s safety disagree, the cat wins. Open questions What’s the least a card needs to show to be useful, and safe? How do you invite people to add something useful (a health note, “this cat is missing”) without turning a nice moment into a chore? Should the first person to meet a cat be remembered on its card? How do you keep the fun from ever becoming the point? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/meeting-a-cat/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Meeting a cat should take one photo and feel like a small gift. But the gift is for the cat: every meeting adds to its story and helps the people who look after it.","title":"Meeting a Cat"},{"content":"Background: Ninja, Naranja, or Milo?\nThe idea Under all the names, there’s one cat. Every person who meets it makes claims about it: what they call it, where they see it, whether they feed it, whether they think it’s owned. Claims can disagree, and that’s fine.\nOver time, the system may notice that two records probably describe the same cat: similar photos, same coat pattern, overlapping territory, the same notched ear. It could suggest merging them, and people would confirm or reject the match.\nThings that might help recognise an individual:\nPhotos. Coat patterns on tabbies, calicos and tuxedos are close to unique. Distinguishing marks: ear tip, notched ear, tail kink, scars, eye colour. Place and time. Sightings near each other in time and space. People’s knowledge: “that’s definitely Naranja”. Tabbies look alike at a glance, but stripes, eye colour and markings differ from cat to cat, if you know where to look. “Is this the same cat?” The best moment to match a cat is when someone meets it. After taking a photo, the person might see: “This might be Mountain Lion. Is it?” Yes, no, or not sure. For them it’s a small moment of recognition. For the cat, it’s a confirmed match, or a sign that this is a different cat that deserves its own record.\nKnowing coats helps everyone get better at this. Tabby, calico, tortoiseshell, tuxedo, solid black: a coat narrows the possibilities, and markings like a tipped ear or a kinked tail settle them. Ninja and Mountain Lion are both orange and white, which is exactly why people need to look closer.\nMountain Lion Orange and white A nickname. Real name unknown. Ninja Orange and white Not Mountain Lion, though they're easy to mix up. Open questions How do you show a cat with several names without picking a “winner”? What happens when a merge turns out to be wrong? Can two cats be split apart again? How do you tell solid black cats apart? Who gets to confirm that two records are the same cat? How do you ask “is this the same cat?” without leading people to say yes? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/cat-identity/","section":"Ideas","summary":"How do you model one cat that has three names, two homes and no clear owner?","title":"Cat Identity \u0026 Multiple Names"},{"content":"An idea for a global, open standard for cat identification.\nMillions of cats live among us. Some are beloved pets, some are strays, and many are cared for by several people who may not even know one another.\nWhen someone finds a cat, identifying it isn’t always easy.\nMicrochips help, but they generally require a special scanner. Collars and identification tags are easier to recognize, but they can fall off, become damaged, or contain outdated contact information.\nWhat if we created an open global standard for cat identification that anyone could use?\nThe idea Imagine a simple, inexpensive, breakaway cat collar containing a tiny NFC chip and a printed QR code.\nAnyone with a smartphone could scan the collar and access information about the cat without installing an app.\nDepending on what caregivers choose to share, that information might include:\nThe cat’s name, photograph, and identifying features. Whether the cat has a home or lives in the community. Important medical information. How to contact its owner or caregivers. How to report a sighting or a concern. And here’s an interesting possibility: even if the collar falls off, someone finding it could scan it and help return it to the cat’s caregiver.\nAn open standard, not another proprietary product The goal wouldn’t be for Straycats to become a collar manufacturer.\nInstead, we could establish an openly documented identification standard that any manufacturer could adopt.\nDifferent companies could produce collars, tags, and other identification products at different price points, all compatible with the same underlying system.\nThe identification would remain useful regardless of which company manufactured the collar.\nAnd because the standard would be open, shelters, veterinarians, rescue organizations, and independent developers could build compatible services.\nWhat about existing microchips? Implanted microchips are already an established identification technology, and there’s no reason to replace them.\nInstead, we could explore connecting existing microchip identifiers to the same cat record.\nA veterinarian using a compatible microchip scanner and a neighbor using a smartphone to scan a collar could potentially access the same identity through different methods, subject to appropriate privacy and access controls.\nThe important thing is the cat’s identity, not the device used to identify it.\nOne cat, many caregivers This idea becomes especially interesting for community cats.\nA cat might be known by several names, fed by several households, and occasionally treated by different veterinarians.\nNobody necessarily owns the cat, yet several people care deeply about its welfare.\nStraycats could help bring those relationships together without requiring someone to claim ownership.\nA scan could become the beginning of a connection between people who already care for the same animal.\nPrivacy and safety matter An identification system should never automatically expose someone’s phone number, home address, or a cat’s sensitive location information.\nCaregivers should control what information is public and how strangers can contact them.\nThe physical collar should carry an identifier, not private personal information.\nAnd because cat collars can become caught on objects, any design would need to prioritize appropriate breakaway safety mechanisms.\nCould this become a global standard? That’s the bigger question.\nThe technology already exists. NFC chips are inexpensive, QR codes are virtually free to produce, and smartphones are widely available.\nThe harder challenge is interoperability - creating an open specification, trustworthy identity records, responsible governance, and a system that remains useful even if individual businesses disappear.\nPerhaps Straycats could help bring manufacturers, software developers, animal welfare organizations, and caregivers together around that goal.\nWhat do you think? This is an early idea, not a finished specification.\nI’d particularly love to hear from people working in animal identification, veterinary medicine, NFC technology, manufacturing, and animal rescue.\nAre there existing standards we should build upon? What problems haven’t we considered? And what would make an open identification system genuinely useful for cats and the people who care for them?\nThe goal is simple: make it easier for every cat to be recognized, cared for, and connected to the people looking out for it.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/open-cat-identity/","section":"Ideas","summary":"An idea for a global, open standard for cat identification: a collar anyone can scan, with no app and no single company in charge.","title":"What If Every Cat Could Carry an Open Identity?"},{"content":"The idea An encounter is any moment a person and a cat cross paths: a sighting, a feeding, a photo, a vet visit, a funny video. Each one adds a little to the cat’s history. No single person needs to know everything.\nToday these encounters live in people’s heads, camera rolls and social media posts. What if they could all attach to the same cat, so the next person who meets it inherits that history instead of starting from nothing?\nMeeting is the easiest encounter The most common encounter is simply meeting a cat and taking its photo. That’s why Meeting a Cat is the way in: one photo is enough to start. Everything else is optional and can be added in a tap or two:\nA name, if you have one for the cat (it joins the others; it doesn’t replace them) What it was doing: eating, sleeping, waiting at a door How it looked: healthy, thin, limping, ear tipped, with kittens Who’s caring for it: “I fed it”, “it’s been to the vet” A story: “she only eats if you sit with her” The place is recorded at the level of the neighbourhood, never the exact spot (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety).\nFrom cradle to grave Some encounters are milestones: a cat’s birth or first litter, a microchip, sterilisation, an injury, a recovery. And one day, its death. A cat’s record should be able to hold all of it, including an obituary, so the people who knew the cat can remember it together.\nMany small encounters, one history One encounter says little. Hundreds, from many people over months and years, become the cat’s history: where it’s usually seen, who feeds it, how its health has changed, which cats it spends time with. That history belongs to the cat, and outlasts everyone who added to it.\nOpen questions What’s the least someone has to record for an encounter to be useful? A photo? A place? How do you make recording an encounter as easy and pleasant as taking the photo itself? Should stories and personality (“she only eats if you sit with her”) matter as much as facts? How do you ask for a useful detail (thin? limping?) without making it feel like a form? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/encounters/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Each time someone meets a cat, they add a little to its shared history.","title":"Encounters: Every Meeting Adds to the Story"},{"content":"Background: The cats nobody owns\nThe idea Around a single cat there may be several people: one feeds it in the morning, another in the evening, a restaurant leaves out scraps, and someone once paid for its deworming. None of them know about each other.\nIf they could see that they’re all caring for the same cat, they could:\navoid double-feeding, and avoid double-treating with medication share vet and sterilisation costs notice sooner when a cat goes missing or gets sick coordinate TNR (trap–neuter–return) with local groups hand over care when someone leaves town, as I eventually will, or when an older neighbor who looked after a cat dies and nobody knows what it eats or what it’s had From meeting to caring Most people will only ever meet a cat. Some will see it again and again. A few will feed it, take it to the vet, or arrange its sterilisation. All of them matter:\nSomeone who’s met a cat once can still flag something: it looks thin, it’s limping, it hasn’t been seen for weeks. Regulars notice changes first, because they know what normal looks like. Caretakers can see those flags and each other, and act. Meeting a cat should make it easy to take the next step, if someone wants to: “I fed it today”, “I can help with the vet bill”. Never pushed, always possible.\nLove isn’t the same as money Not everyone who loves cats can afford to feed them all, or to pay for sterilisation. When food is short, some cats go without. That’s how Ninja ended up skin and bone, until someone with a little more time and money started feeding him every night.\nA care network could make that kind of help easier to find and to share, without anyone having to explain their finances: one person feeds, another covers the vet, another steps in when a caretaker is away or ill. Because when feeding stops, even for a few days, cats quickly start hunting and fighting.\nOpen questions How do caretakers connect without exposing personal details? Should shared costs be tracked, or is that a step too far? What do rescue and TNR groups need that individuals don’t? How do you turn “this cat looks sick” from someone passing by into help, quickly? How could people who can afford a little help those who can’t, without making anyone feel small? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/care-network/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Many people quietly care for the same cats with no coordination. What if they could find each other?","title":"The Care Network"},{"content":"Background: Let’s talk. This page grew out of one of the first conversations.\nThe idea A lot of what goes wrong for cats isn’t cruelty. It’s not knowing: about poison, about sterilisation, about black cats, about what happens when feeding stops. StrayCats could help people learn these things a little at a time, at the moment it matters, without lecturing anyone.\nWhat people could learn Sterilisation changes everything. Someone adopts a kitten, doesn’t get it spayed, and a year later there’s a litter, and then a household with five cats and not enough money to feed them. Here, sterilising a cat costs around 900 pesos (about CA$80): affordable for some, out of reach for many. Knowing where low-cost sterilisation is available, and when a cat is old enough, could prevent a lot of hunger.\nPoison kills cats, by accident and on purpose. Rat bait is a common accidental killer: a cat eats a poisoned rat and is poisoned too, even though cats were the natural rat control in the first place (thanks to Les for that point). Some people also poison cats deliberately. Knowing safer ways to deal with rats, and recognising the signs of poisoning, could save lives. The deliberate kind is also why StrayCats will never show where a cat lives (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety).\nBlack cats deserve better. Black cats are often said to be adopted less and put down more in shelters, partly out of superstition. In my experience they’re some of the sweetest cats there are: once Ciccio trusted me, she simply melted.\nFeeding is a commitment. When feeding stops, even for a few days because a caretaker is ill, cats quickly start hunting and fighting. Cats also catch wildlife: Les’s tortoiseshell once brought in a hummingbird. Regular feeding, and someone to cover when a caretaker can’t, matters for the cats and for the birds.\nHow StrayCats could help A tip at the right moment. Meet a cat whose ear isn’t tipped, and learn what sterilisation involves and where to find it nearby. Local knowledge, shared. Low-cost sterilisation campaigns, vets who help community cats, safer rat control. Stories over rules. Ninja’s recovery and Ciccio’s sweetness may change more minds than any list of facts. Carlitos Grey tabby Skittish and not neutered. After months, finally lets me touch him. Ciccio Black A girl, whatever her name suggests. Curls up with Mika Ella. Ninja Orange and white Not Mountain Lion, though they're easy to mix up. Open questions How do you share information without lecturing, or making anyone feel judged for what they can’t afford? Who keeps local information (campaigns, vets, prices) accurate and up to date? How do you talk about deliberate poisoning without frightening people, or giving anyone ideas? Should StrayCats help people report poisoning, and to whom? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/education-and-awareness/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Many of the dangers cats face come from things people simply don’t know. Awareness may help cats more than any feature.","title":"Education \u0026 Awareness"},{"content":"The idea “Stray” and “pet” aren’t two separate boxes. A cat might be one family’s pet, fed by three other households, and called a stray by the restaurant on the corner. Some cats really are lost, and their owners are searching for them. It goes the other way too: a cat someone had to give up, or whose person died, can look exactly like a stray to the next person who meets it.\nIf ownership is just another claim, not a fact, then:\na family could say “this is our Milo”, alongside the neighbour’s claim that it’s “Ninja” an owner looking for a lost cat could be matched against recent encounters nearby everyone could see that a “stray” actually has people looking out for it Many homes, many claims It happens at the house all the time. Tenkilo, named for weighing almost ten kilos, is clearly being fed at a comfortable home nearby, and so is Mika Ella, who barely nibbles when she’s back here. Ciccio isn’t welcome there, and eats only here. Does that make Tenkilo their cat? They may think so.\nPeople can be possessive, too. Les used to feed a neighbour’s outdoor cat salmon, until the neighbour asked Les to stop: the cat was “on a special diet”. A cat can have several homes, and the people in each may not know about, or approve of, the others.\nMeeting isn’t claiming Meeting a cat, naming it, even feeding it, doesn’t make it yours, and StrayCats should never suggest it does. Your list of cats you’ve met is a list of acquaintances, not possessions.\nThat list can still help. When someone is searching for a lost cat, people who’ve met a similar cat nearby recently could be asked: “Have you seen this cat?” The answer might be in someone’s photo from yesterday. (More in When a Cat Goes Missing.)\nOpen questions How do you handle conflicting ownership claims without starting neighbourhood feuds? Should we connect to existing lost-pet services rather than duplicate them? How do you stop people falsely claiming an animal? How do you show that a cat eats in several homes without causing friction between them? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/lost-and-found/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Many ‘strays’ are someone’s pet, and many pets live like strays. Ownership is a spectrum.","title":"Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between?"},{"content":"An idea for a simple, cheap way to ask a friendly cat’s owner to get in touch.\nI first saw the paper collar in a post by a moderator in the Facebook group Table View Pets lost \u0026 found, in Cape Town, on 23 July 2025. I thought it was a new idea. It isn’t.\nWhat a paper collar is It is a strip of paper, worn loosely around the neck of a friendly cat who keeps turning up, that asks one question: “Is this cat yours?” It also gives the finder’s contact details. If the cat has an owner who has been searching, the owner can see the strip and get in touch.\nNot a new idea Plenty of organizations already publish free printable versions, including Cats Protection and Wood Green in the UK, International Cat Care, Austin Animal Services, and others, such as Ottawa Humane Society, Regina Humane Society and Animal Register NZ. A thread on the Maddie’s Fund forum credits the Catch-All Cat blog and the Community Cats Podcast for spreading it.\nI won’t copy anyone’s wording. The honest question is what StrayCats could add.\nWhat StrayCats could add StrayCats connects people who care for cats. A paper collar is a way to reach someone who isn’t on the platform yet: an owner who has no idea their cat has been visiting a stranger, or a neighbour who also feeds the same cat.\nThe strip could carry the StrayCats website and a line on how to join, next to a space for the finder’s contact details. Whoever finds the collar lands in the same place as the person who put it on. (As in the open identity idea, the finder side wouldn’t need an app.)\nThe picture at the top is a concept mockup, not a photo and not a real product. It shows the idea: a sheet of strips, one torn out and on the cat.\nA strip could also be reversible: an attractive pattern on one side for everyday wear, and the StrayCats details on the other.\nConcept mockup, not a photo and not a real product. The QR code and NFC marks come from the open identity idea; the paper collar itself wouldn’t carry a QR code. Here is how it could grow, from cheapest to most ambitious:\nA free printable template. Print it at home, cut it out, write on it. Not built yet. Copies for veterinary clinics, shelters and community cat groups to hand out, ideally alongside a free microchip scan. This costs almost nothing. Ready-made sheets. Pre-printed strips that tear off cleanly. Perforated means a line of small holes to tear along; die-cut means cut through in a custom shape; scored means creased. Ideally the material would shrug off rain but still tear easily. Tyvek wristbands are the closest ready-made product I found, but Tyvek is built to resist tearing, which is the opposite of what a breakaway collar needs, so I wouldn’t use it. Thin paper, or a water-resistant stock that tears with a light pull, would need testing. Custom print runs usually need minimums of a few hundred, and I haven’t confirmed prices. Packs by mail. Perhaps drop-shipped by a printing company, in different designs, with plenty of replacements for cats that keep losing their collars. I don’t know whether print-on-demand services offer perforated strips. That needs quotes, so treat it as “could one day”, after the free template and the vet copies. The closure matters too: a slot-and-tab, or a loop through a slit, so there is no tape on fur. It should be deliberately weak, so it tears if the cat gets caught. In other words, a breakaway design.\nSafety comes first A paper collar is a small intervention on a living animal. These precautions seem sensible:\nOnly for friendly cats who are comfortable being handled. Never a nervous or feral cat. Thin paper, not card, so it tears if snagged. Don’t cover the whole strip in tape. Leave part untaped so it can tear. Some guides tape over the writing to protect it from rain; a water-resistant material seems safer to me. Loose fit: about two fingers should slide under it, and looser is safer. No tape directly against fur. Not for kittens. This is a reasonable precaution of mine, not something I’ve seen sourced. Check on the cat, and take the collar off if it bothers them. How long to leave it on varies a lot between guides, from hours to a week or two. I won’t invent a number. If nobody responds Ask a vet or shelter to scan the whole body for a microchip. Chips can migrate, and a chip may be registered with a different database than the first one tried. Here is how to scan a cat for a microchip. Then ask local groups.\nMany apparent strays are owned. Do these checks before removing a cat from where it lives. A collar suggests a home, but whose? As in Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between?, ownership is a claim, not a fact. See also When a Cat Goes Missing and Make Help Easier to Find Than Dumping.\nNo hard evidence yet I haven’t found studies showing paper collars work. The reports are anecdotal. It is cheap and kind-hearted, and it might help, but I wouldn’t promise more than that.\nOpen questions What should the finder write on the strip: a phone number, a first name, or something else? Who prints them, and who pays? Is a tear-off sheet realistic, and at what cost? How do we keep it from being used on cats that shouldn’t be handled? Would vets actually hand them out? The goal is simple: help the person who finds a cat and the person who lost one find each other, without putting the cat at risk.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/paper-collar/","section":"Ideas","summary":"A loose paper strip around a friendly cat’s neck asks, “Is this cat yours?” It isn’t a new idea, but StrayCats could make it a bridge between people who use the platform and people who don’t.","title":"The Paper Collar"},{"content":"Suggested by Michael, a reader of my newsletter. A friend of his lost her cat a week ago and has been crying for days.\nThe idea When a cat goes missing, the people most likely to have seen it are the ones who already know it: the neighbour who feeds it in the morning, the restaurant on the corner, someone who met it last week and took its photo. Today there’s no way to reach them. StrayCats already connects a cat with everyone who has met it, so it could:\nLet the people who care for a cat mark it as missing, with when and roughly where it was last seen. Alert the people who’ve met that cat, and people in the same area, with its card: “Have you seen Ninja?” Check recent photos. Someone may have met a cat that looks a lot like it yesterday, a few streets away. “Is this the same cat?” becomes urgent and useful. Send sightings privately to the people searching, never onto a public map. Celebrate the good news. When a cat is found, everyone who looked gets to know. Strays go missing too Not every missing cat has an owner who’s searching. A community cat can simply stop turning up, and nobody may notice for weeks. If its regular visitors are connected, someone notices sooner: “Has anyone seen Carlitos lately?” That alone could save a cat that’s injured, trapped or sick.\nWhen a cat doesn’t come back Many missing cats are never found, and some are found too late. Not knowing is its own kind of grief. A cat’s record could stay open (“last seen in October”), so that if it turns up months later, someone recognises it.\nAnd when a cat dies, the people who loved it should be able to remember it together. A cat’s history can end with an obituary, written by everyone who knew it (see Encounters). This project began as a way to remember cats; it’s dedicated to Saibo.\nKeeping it safe A missing-cat alert must never become a way to find where a cat lives, or to trick a worried owner. Alerts show the area, not the address; sightings go only to the people searching; nobody’s phone number is shown; and someone who claims a found cat should have to show it’s theirs (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety and Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between?).\nNot just cats? Michael also asked whether this should be for all pets. Dogs go missing too, and so do rabbits, parrots and tortoises. StrayCats is starting with cats, on purpose: they’re the animals most likely to live between homes. But nearly everything here (identity, encounters, the care network, missing alerts) would work for any animal. Dogs come later; they’re just a different type of cat.\nOpen questions Who can mark a cat as missing: an owner, a caretaker, anyone who’s met it? How do you alert people without overwhelming them, or alarming them about every cat that stays away for a day? How do you stop scams, such as people asking for a reward for a cat they don’t have? Should StrayCats connect to local shelters and existing lost-pet services, rather than replace them? How should a cat’s record end: with “missing”, “found” or “remembered”? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/when-a-cat-goes-missing/","section":"Ideas","summary":"A missing cat is one of the hardest things a person who loves cats goes through. The people who’ve met that cat may be the best chance of finding it.","title":"When a Cat Goes Missing"},{"content":"The concern A public map of exactly where stray cats live and get fed is useful to helpers — but also to people who want to harm animals, or who object to colonies in their area. Caretakers' own locations and routines also need protecting.\nPoisoning shows why. Some of it is accidental: cats eat rats that have eaten rat bait. Some of it is deliberate, by people who want cats gone. Either way, a map of where cats live and eat would make the deliberate kind easier. Awareness is part of the answer too (see Education \u0026 Awareness).\nPossible approaches Fuzzed public locations — show an approximate area, not an exact point. Trusted roles — verified rescuers/caretakers see precise data. Delayed publishing — sightings appear publicly after a delay. Minimal personal data — collect as little about users as possible. Celebrate cats without exposing them People love the cats in their neighbourhood, and StrayCats should let them enjoy and share them. But some things that make an app exciting would put cats at risk, so they’re ruled out:\nNo popularity. No rankings, no “most-met” or “favourite” cat, no counts that make a cat famous. A well-known cat is easier to find, for good people and bad. No exact spots, anywhere. Not on cards, not in shared links, not in landmarks or place names that give a feeding spot away. Your own private map can remember where you met a cat; nobody else sees it. No public photo links. Photos are shown inside cards, not as files anyone can pass around and reuse. No people in photos, and nothing that shows someone’s home. Welfare over engagement. Features are judged by whether they help cats, not by how much they’re used. Open questions Where’s the right balance between openness and safety? Who decides who is “trusted”? How do you let people share a cat they love without sharing where it lives? ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/privacy-and-safety/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Location data about vulnerable animals can be misused. How do we protect them?","title":"Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety"},{"content":"The idea Building has started! After a month of all talk and no code, a first, very simple app is under construction. These are the constraints I expect:\nOpen source under a permissive or copyleft licence (to be decided). Mobile-first — most sightings happen on the street; a cross-platform app or a Progressive Web App could cover iOS and Android. Open, anonymised datasets for researchers and councils studying stray populations. Low running costs so it can survive on donations and grants. Owned infrastructure. Like this blog, it shouldn’t depend on a social network’s platform. Quick to start. A nickname is enough to begin; no email or password until someone wants more (for example, to join a cat’s care network). A real cat in every photo. The phone itself could check that a photo shows a real cat, before anything is uploaded. Private by design. Exact locations stay on the person’s phone; only the neighbourhood is ever shared, and photos are never published as open links. Works with a weak signal. Many street cats live where coverage is patchy, so meeting a cat should work offline and sync later. Cards that travel. A cat’s card should be easy to send in a message, and open nicely for someone who doesn’t have the app yet. Many languages from the start, beginning with English and Spanish. Open questions Native app, cross-platform framework, or PWA first? Which licence — MIT, Apache-2.0, AGPL? How much can happen on the phone itself (recognising a cat, matching it), so less data leaves it? How should the project be governed and funded long-term? Are you a developer or designer who’d like to help? Say hi! ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/open-data-and-tech/","section":"Ideas","summary":"Thoughts on how the app could be built, hosted and kept sustainable as a non-profit.","title":"Open Data \u0026 Tech Stack"},{"content":"Make help easier to find than dumping A cat left by the road loses more than a home. It loses its whole story.\nA person who finds that cat has no way to know if it was sterilised, if it was fed somewhere, if anyone already cares for it, or if it is lost or abandoned. At the roadside, a lost cat and a dumped cat look exactly the same. A scared cat, no name, no history, no one who knows it.\nIt isn’t only finders. Someone who has to give up their own cat, because of a move, money or a death in the family, usually has the whole story in their head and nowhere to put it. I’d like that story to travel with the cat.\nWhy prosecution alone is a weak answer Proving dumping is hard. You would need to know who did it, when, and why. Most people who find a cat do not have that proof. By the time anyone could prove anything, the cat has already been left behind.\nThat does not mean dumping should be ignored. It means a system built only around proving it after the fact starts too late for the cat.\nA better question Why was dumping the easiest option that person could find?\nWhat if getting help was just as easy as finding a public toilet? You open your phone, and in seconds you find a safe place to take the cat, a foster home, food help, or a low cost vet to fix the cat so it cannot have kittens. You do not need to know which organisation to call first.\nGroups like the SPCA have done great work. But the system feels stuck in one way. Help is out there, but it is hard to find when you need it fast. That is where there is room for something simpler and more open.\nWhat StrayCats could add For context, I am working on an idea called StrayCats. There is no app. But the plans are being worked out in the open, and anyone can read them and comment on them. It is open source and non profit.\nThe idea is simple. Each cat gets its own record. The record belongs to the cat, not to one person. If you meet a cat, you can see what people already know about it. If you need help, you can find local help in the same place.\nThat would not prove who dumped a cat. It could do something smaller and more useful. It could stop the second harm, which is the cat becoming completely unknown the moment it is left behind.\nThe hard problems come first There are a lot of hard problems to solve first. Bad people could use a system like this in bad ways. They could try to find cats to hurt them. They could try to find the people who care for them, or lie about a cat.\nSo we have to protect both the cats and the people. That means no exact spots, ever. No home addresses. People can use just a nickname at first. And we have to think hard about who can see what, before we build anything.\nThat is why StrayCats is deliberately not building an app yet. The safety problems have to come first, not after.\nWhat this would not do This would not stop every case of dumping. It would not fix funding or vet access on its own. It should never be used to shame people or show where a cat lives.\nThe goal is narrower. If help is easier to find than dumping, fewer cats will end up by the road. And if a cat does end up there, the next person who meets it will not have to start from zero.\nOpen questions for collaborators What is the simplest front door to help in a crisis, for a person who has never contacted a rescue before? How do you connect a person in crisis to local surrender, foster, food, or vet help in seconds, without publishing where any cat lives? How do you keep a cat’s record useful when the person who made it leaves, while keeping both cats and caretakers safe from malicious actors? What should a finder be able to learn about a cat, and what must stay private? Feedback is welcome through the channels already on the StrayCats site: a 30 minute “Let’s talk” chat, email, and GitHub Discussions or Issues. This page is not a promise of a product. It is an open question, and it needs collaborators, not just readers.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/ideas/help-easier-than-dumping/","section":"Ideas","summary":"If help was as easy to find as a public toilet, fewer cats would end up by the road. A lost cat and a dumped cat look the same, so prevention has to come before proof.","title":"Make Help Easier to Find Than Dumping"},{"content":"This is the StrayCats app as it looks today. It’s still being built, so think of these as progress photos from a building site: the newest is at the top. Scroll down to see how far it has come. (The code is open, if you’re curious.)\n#4 · 7 Nov 2026 #3 · 7 Nov 2026 #2 · 7 Nov 2026 #1 · 7 Nov 2026 ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/app/","section":"","summary":"Progress photos of the StrayCats app as it’s being built, newest first.","title":"The App, Under Construction"},{"content":" Saibo, 2010–2026. This project is dedicated to him. May he rest in peace. What StrayCats is StrayCats is a non-profit, open-source app that’s being built in the open to make caring for cats easier. It will let anyone who cares for a cat see its story: their own cat, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, a cat they had to give up, or one left behind.\nListen to the idea A 90-second introduction to the project, if you’d rather listen than read. It was made with Google’s NotebookLM from the pages on this site, so the two voices are AI-generated.\nDownload the audio Speed 1× 1.5× Giving StrayCats a Permanent History, a brief audio overview (1½ minutes) For the full deep dive (38 minutes), see The Building Blocks.\nDedication This project is dedicated to Saibo, my cat of sixteen years, who came with me to Mexico and died here in September 2026.\nWhere it comes from I’m living for a while in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, looking after a house full of cats: some pets, some strays, some of unknown origin. I pay for their food and sometimes their vet care. I’ve learned their names and stories from the people who were here before me, and I pass them on to whoever arrives next. I keep an Instagram account, @mimos_cat_sanctuary, to show off their personalities.\nIt works. But everything I know lives in my head and on my phone, and when I leave, it leaves with me. Read the full story →\nThe core idea What if every cat could have:\nan identity that doesn’t depend on one name, place or owner a history built up from every human encounter a network of people who care about it, who can find each other and pass the history on a way in that’s a pleasure: meeting a cat takes one photo, and every meeting adds a little to its story (more) What this site is A notebook kept in public. Each story starts with something real and follows the question it raises. The ideas pages collect the concepts and open questions that come out of them. It keeps growing: conversations with people who care for cats have already turned into new stories and ideas, and What’s New records each step.\nWhat it isn’t (yet) An app. There’s no code, no product plan and no business model yet, on purpose. Right now the work is listening and designing in the open, and the first software comes after the ideas are shaped with the people who care for cats.\nPrinciples Open source. Ideas, designs and eventually code are public. Non-profit. No ads, no selling data. Ever. The record belongs to the cat, not to any caretaker or platform. Owned, not rented. This is a site of its own, not a page on Facebook or another social network. Animal welfare and privacy first. Cats first. Dogs later (they’re just a different type of cat). Meeting, not owning. People meet cats here; no one owns or claims them. Fun is the doorway, not the destination. Meeting a cat should be a pleasure, but every feature exists for the cat’s benefit and to help the people who care for it. No popularity contests. No rankings and no exact locations. Attention can put a cat at risk. Join in If any of this rings true for you, I’d love to hear from you. A one-line hello is plenty, and every message is read by me personally. See Get involved for easy ways to take part.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/about/","section":"","summary":"What StrayCats is, where it came from, and what it isn’t (yet).","title":"About"},{"content":"If you run a clinic, shelter or rescue and want to show you support the cats’ side of things, you can add a small StrayCats card to your website. It works on any site (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Hugo or plain HTML), costs nothing, and you never have to update it: when the project’s wording or logo changes, your card changes too.\nWhat it is The card is a small piece of code that shows the StrayCats logo, a one-sentence description and a link to this site. It does not use cookies, does not track your visitors and does not load anything except the card text and the logo from this site. If it can’t load, your visitors still see a plain link.\nCopy and paste Paste this where you want the card to appear (a footer, the “About” page, a sidebar):\n\u003cstraycats-card\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://straycats.love/\"\u003eStrayCats project\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/straycats-card\u003e \u003cscript src=\"https://straycats.love/card.js\" async\u003e\u003c/script\u003e For a smaller one-line version, good for a footer:\n\u003cstraycats-card variant=\"compact\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://straycats.love/\"\u003eStrayCats project\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/straycats-card\u003e \u003cscript src=\"https://straycats.love/card.js\" async\u003e\u003c/script\u003e For phones and narrow columns, a medium version keeps the logo beside a short description:\n\u003cstraycats-card variant=\"medium\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://straycats.love/\"\u003eStrayCats project\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/straycats-card\u003e \u003cscript src=\"https://straycats.love/card.js\" async\u003e\u003c/script\u003e The line inside the tag is a safety net: it is what visitors see if their browser blocks scripts, and it is replaced by the card as soon as the card loads. You can paste the \u003cscript\u003e line more than once, or use several cards on a page; it still works.\nOptions Add these to the \u003cstraycats-card\u003e tag, for example \u003cstraycats-card lang=\"es\" variant=\"compact\"\u003e.\nOption Values Default lang en or es your page’s language, else en variant card (logo, description and link), medium (smaller, always side by side, made for phones and narrow columns) or compact (one line) card theme light, dark or auto (follows the visitor’s device) auto Match your colors The card has sensible light and dark colors. To match your site, set any of these in your CSS:\nstraycats-card { --straycats-bg: #ffffff; /* card background */ --straycats-border: #e3d9cc; /* card border */ --straycats-text: #2b2623; /* text */ --straycats-accent: #8a4b12; /* link color */ } Keep the link color dark enough (or light enough on a dark background) to read easily. The logo always sits on its own cream tile, so it looks right on any background.\nUsing Hugo? Save this as layouts/_partials/straycats-card.html (or layouts/partials/ in older Hugo):\n\u003cstraycats-card lang=\"{{ site.Language.Lang }}\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://straycats.love/\"\u003eStrayCats project\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/straycats-card\u003e \u003cscript src=\"https://straycats.love/card.js\" async\u003e\u003c/script\u003e Then add one line wherever the card should appear, for example in your footer template:\n{{ partial \"straycats-card.html\" . }} Questions If something doesn’t look right, or you’d like a different look, get in touch. Thank you for helping more people see the cats nobody owns.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/embed/","section":"","summary":"A small, free card that links your website to the StrayCats project. Paste two lines of HTML, and it keeps itself up to date.","title":"Add the StrayCats card to your site"},{"content":"Saibo · 1 August 2010 – 16 September 2026\nThis project is dedicated to Saibo, my grey-and-white cat.\nHe was with me for sixteen years. When I came to Mexico, he came with me. Here in Puerto Escondido he fell ill with stomach cancer, and on 16 September 2026 he died.\nStrayCats is about remembering cats, so that a cat’s story doesn’t disappear when the people around it move on. I want it to carry Saibo’s memory too. The cat in the StrayCats logo is Saibo.\nSaibo in Puerto Escondido. ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/saibo/","section":"","summary":"This project is dedicated to Saibo, 1 August 2010 – 16 September 2026.","title":"For Saibo"},{"content":"There’s no app to download and nothing to sign up for. StrayCats is a notebook where I’m thinking out loud, and the most useful thing you can do is think alongside me. I’m most curious about your own experience of caring for a cat: your own, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, one you had to give up, or one left behind. What would have made it easier? Below are some ways to share that, from a single line to a proper conversation. Start wherever feels easy. None of it adds up to a commitment, for you or for me.\nEvery message is read by me, personally, and I’ll do my best to write back. English or Spanish, either is fine.\nEmail Telegram (opens in a new tab) WhatsApp (opens in a new tab) GitHub (opens in a new tab) Say hi, in one line The smallest useful message is a name and a place: “I’m in Oaxaca and there’s a one-eyed cat at my corner shop.” That’s a whole message. Use Telegram, WhatsApp or email, whichever you already have open.\nAnswer one question If you’d like something to respond to, pick one and answer in a sentence or two. Disagreement is welcome. It’s how the idea gets better.\nWhich of these have you lived: your own cat, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, a cat you gave up, a cat left behind? What would have helped you? Do you look after cats you don’t technically own? How do you keep track of them? Have you met a cat with more than one name, or more than one “owner”? What happened to a cat’s story when it changed hands, or when its person moved away or died? Which ideas excite you? Which ones worry you? What would make you stop and record a cat you meet? What should a cat’s card never show? Every story and idea also ends with a Respond to this idea box, with a question about that page.\nShare a cat story, an idea or a correction If you’d rather it be written down where others can see it, open an issue on GitHub. It’s the right place for a cat’s story, a new idea, or something I got wrong. For open conversation there’s also GitHub Discussions. A free GitHub account is all you need, and you don’t have to be a developer. Every page also has a Suggest changes link.\nPlease leave out exact locations and home addresses. A cat’s neighbourhood is plenty (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety).\nOffer a skill Translation, design, development, rescue or vet experience, local knowledge: the vet who helps community cats in your town, where low-cost sterilisation happens, how things really work where you live. There’s no code yet, on purpose: the first software comes after the ideas are shaped, so there isn’t a team to join yet. But if you tell me what you’re good at, I’ll know who to ask when there’s something real to work on, and you’re free to say no then.\nHave a chat If you’d rather talk than type, book a relaxed 30-minute video chat about the cats in your life and your ideas. It’s the biggest thing on this list, and entirely optional. Chats are in English, cameras are optional, and the Let’s talk page explains what happens to what you say.\nBook a 30-minute chat (opens in a new tab)\nChip in This is a one-person project with no budget, and it's completely fine if you never give anything. If you'd like to, a small contribution goes toward keeping the site going. There's no reward, no membership and no commitment, on either side.\nChip in (opens in a new tab)\nPass it on Maybe the best help is telling one cat person you know. Send them the site, or copy the address below.\nEmail a friend WhatsApp (opens in a new tab) Telegram (opens in a new tab) Or copy the address: http://straycats.love/\nFollow along Prefer it to come to you? Add the RSS feed to any feed reader and new stories and ideas show up there. No account, nothing tracked.\nLooking for the older feedback page? It’s still here: Give Feedback has more of the thinking behind these questions.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/involve/","section":"","summary":"There’s no app to join and nothing to sign up for. Here are easy ways to help, from a one-line hello to a longer chat.","title":"Get involved"},{"content":"The readers of this site are the project’s first research community. I’m most interested in stories like these:\n“We have exactly the same thing happening here.” “That cat has four names on my street.” “I’ve been paying for a cat’s vet bills for years and I don’t know who else feeds it.” “When I took in a cat, I knew nothing about where it came from.” “Here’s why that idea won’t work.” Disagreement, edge cases and strange situations are all welcome. They’re how the idea gets better.\nQuestions I’d love answered Which of these have you lived: your own cat, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, a cat you gave up, a cat left behind? What would have helped you? Do you look after cats you don’t technically own? How do you keep track of them? Have you met a cat with more than one name, or more than one “owner”? What happened to a cat’s story when it changed hands, or when its person moved away or died? Which ideas excite you? Which ones worry you? What would make you stop and record a cat you meet? What should a cat’s card never show? Would you like to help one day: stories, design, code, rescue experience? Let’s talk Ideas and stories come out best in conversation. Book a relaxed 30-minute chat about the cats in your life and your ideas: Let’s talk.\nHow to reach me Every story ends with a Respond to this idea box. You can also reach me here:\nEmail: david@davidwilliston.com Telegram: @davidwilliston WhatsApp: +1 236 882 2034 GitHub Discussions: https://github.com/david-williston/straycats/discussions, the best place for open conversation GitHub Issues: https://github.com/david-williston/straycats/issues, for specific suggestions or corrections More ways to help, from a one-line hello to a longer chat, are on Get involved.\nEvery page also has a Suggest changes link if you’d like to propose an edit directly.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/feedback/","section":"","summary":"Tell me what I’m missing.","title":"Give Feedback"},{"content":"Ideas and stories come out best in conversation. If you care for a cat, yours or not, have adopted one or had to give one up, have met a cat with too many names, or simply have an opinion about anything on this site, I’d love to talk with you.\nBook a 30-minute chat (opens in a new tab)\nWhat a chat is like 30 minutes, on Google Meet. Pick a time that suits you; the link arrives by email. Cameras optional. I like to say hello face to face and then turn the cameras off, so it’s more like a relaxed phone call. Keep yours off the whole time if you prefer. No preparation needed. I’ll ask about the cats in your life and what you think of the ideas here. Disagreement is welcome. In English. What happens to what you say The conversation is transcribed, so I can capture your ideas accurately instead of scribbling notes. Before you book, you’ll be asked to confirm that, and to choose how I may use what you say.\nYour transcript is used only to develop StrayCats. An AI assistant helps me pick out the ideas and stories you shared. The transcript isn’t shared or sold. Then the transcript is deleted. Only the ideas and stories are kept. You choose how you’re credited if I retell something you said on this site: by your first name, anonymously, or only after asking you first. If you ask for anonymity, everything is anonymised: your name and anything else that could identify you. I’ll never publish where a cat lives or is fed, or anything that could identify your home (see Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety). Questions or second thoughts? Write to me any time: david@davidwilliston.com. Ideas that come out of these conversations show up in the stories and ideas, and in What’s New.\nBook a 30-minute chat (opens in a new tab)\nRather write? See Get involved for other ways to reach me.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/talk/","section":"","summary":"Book a relaxed 30-minute chat about the cats in your life and your ideas for StrayCats.","title":"Let's Talk"},{"content":"Writing about StrayCats, or about the people who care for cats? Here’s the project in brief, artwork you’re welcome to use, and how to reach me.\nIn brief StrayCats is an open-source, non-profit project to make caring for a cat easier, by letting anyone who cares for one see its story, so nothing is lost when a cat changes hands. The cat might be your own, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, one you had to give up, or one left behind when its owner died. It starts with the cats I’ve come to know in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, and a simple question: what if every cat had an identity, a history, and a network of people who care about it, and meeting one took nothing more than a photo?\nWhat it is: a growing open-source project, worked out in the open. The ideas and stories on this site keep growing as people share what they know, and What’s New records each step. An early app is under construction, in the open. Who’s behind it: David Williston, who looks after a house full of cats in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Who it’s for: anyone who cares for a cat, whether it’s theirs or not. Open source and non-profit: everything is public on GitHub. The cat comes first: the cat’s wellbeing always comes first, then the people who care for cats. Dedicated to Saibo, my cat of sixteen years, who died in Puerto Escondido in September 2026. The cat in the logo is Saibo. Languages: English and Spanish. For more, see About, or listen to the 90-second audio introduction.\nLogo and artwork The logo is a portrait of Saibo resting in front of a sunset over the rooftops, with the “Straycats” wordmark and a “.love” heart. Click a picture or Download to save the full-size file.\nLogo, transparent background PNG, 1385 × 1152, with a white outline so it reads on light and dark backgrounds. For web pages and layouts. Download (1.1 MB) Logo on white PNG, 1425 × 1192. Download (1003 KB) Logo for print TIFF, 300 dpi. Prints sharply up to about 12 × 10 cm. Download (1.9 MB) Square icon PNG, 1024 × 1024. Saibo's face on sunset orange, for avatars and thumbnails. Download (1.2 MB) Wide card JPG, 1200 × 630. For social posts and article headers. Download (86 KB) Download everything (ZIP, 15.3 MB)\nThe ZIP also holds app icons from 72 to 1024 px, favicons, and a short guide.\nUsing the artwork You’re welcome to use the logo and artwork in articles, posts and broadcasts about Stray Cats. Please don’t change the colours, distort it, or separate Saibo from the wordmark.\nThe artwork was generated with ChatGPT and exists only as raster images (there’s no vector version). It’s about 1400 px wide, so it prints sharply only at small sizes. If you need it larger, get in touch.\nColours Colour Hex Midnight charcoal #17212A Dark background #10161F Warm sunrise #FFD987 Sunset amber #F8AD50 Deep sunset #E77645 Saibo white #F7F5EF Golden eyes #E8BD64 Link to StrayCats If you run a clinic, a blog or a rescue, you can add a small card to your website that links to the project. It’s free, and it keeps itself up to date. This is the card, live:\nStrayCats project To add it, paste this where you’d like it to appear:\n\u003cstraycats-card\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://straycats.love/\"\u003eStrayCats project\u003c/a\u003e \u003c/straycats-card\u003e \u003cscript src=\"https://straycats.love/card.js\" async\u003e\u003c/script\u003e For colours, the one-line version and Hugo, see the full instructions.\nContact I’m happy to answer questions and talk about the project.\nEmail: david@davidwilliston.com A 30-minute call: Let’s talk (in English) ","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/press/","section":"","summary":"For journalists and bloggers: StrayCats in brief, the logo and artwork to download, and how to reach me.","title":"Press"},{"content":"Been here before? Here’s what’s new and what’s changed, newest first. Pages that changed also say New or Updated under their title.\nNovember 7, 2026: The app, under construction Version v2026.11.07.1\nNew: the StrayCats app is now being built, in the open. It’s an early, very simple first version, and you can watch it take shape in The App, Under Construction, with screenshots of each step, newest first. November 6, 2026: Reversible collars Version v2026.11.06.1\nUpdated: The Paper Collar and What If Every Cat Could Carry an Open Identity? now show a concept mockup of reversible collars, with a pattern on one side and the StrayCats details on the other. Both are ideas, not products yet. November 6, 2026: A picture for the open identity idea Version v2026.11.06\nUpdated: What If Every Cat Could Carry an Open Identity? now has a cover image, a concept mockup of reversible breakaway collars with a QR code and an NFC tag. They are an idea, not a product yet. November 5, 2026: A picture for the dumping idea Version v2026.11.05.5\nUpdated: Make Help Easier to Find Than Dumping now has a cover image, a concept mockup of what finding help could look like on a phone. There is still no app. November 5, 2026: The Paper Collar Version v2026.11.05.4\nNew: The Paper Collar, an idea for a loose, tear-away paper strip that asks a friendly cat’s owner to get in touch, and that could bring people who don’t use StrayCats to the site. November 5, 2026: The logo on the home page Version v2026.11.05.3\nChanged: the StrayCats logo is back at the very top of the home page, above the introduction. November 5, 2026: How we describe StrayCats Version v2026.11.05.2\nChanged: the site now describes StrayCats as a growing open-source project instead of an idea at the concept stage, on the home page, About, Press and the card for your site. The facts haven’t changed: there’s still no app or code, and the first software comes after the ideas are shaped with the people who care for cats. Changed: the name is now written as one word, StrayCats. Changed: the home page has a new look and a clearer introduction. New: the site name in the header now shows the address, StrayCats.love. Updated: About has three photos of Saibo and a dedication to him, and the Ideas page now lists the newest first. November 5, 2026: A new logo Version v2026.11.05.1\nChanged: the Stray Cats logo now includes the .love in a heart, and Saibo’s portrait is a little larger and sharper. The tab icon is his face on sunset orange. Updated: the Press page and its brand kit have the new logo, icons and link-preview image, in both languages. November 5, 2026: A home of our own Version v2026.11.05\nChanged: Stray Cats now lives at straycats.love. The old address keeps working and sends you to the new one. Updated: the card for your site and the Press page now use the new address. Cards already on other sites keep working. November 1, 2026: A card sized for phones Version v2026.11.01.1\nNew: the Stray Cats card now comes in a medium size made for phones and narrow columns, between the full card and the small footer version. See how to add it. November 1, 2026: Add the Stray Cats card to your site Version v2026.11.01\nNew: a small card that any clinic, shelter or rescue can add to its website to link to Stray Cats, with a compact version for footers. It keeps itself up to date, in English and Spanish. See how to add it, or find it on the Press page. October 30, 2026: Easier to read and use Version v2026.10.30.6\nChanged: text is larger across the site, especially the footer, captions, tags and page details, and it now follows your browser’s text-size setting. Changed: colours are a little darker in light mode so small text is easier to read. New: a “skip to content” link, clearer keyboard focus, and labels for screen readers, in both languages. October 30, 2026: Chip in, if you like Version v2026.10.30.5\nNew: you can now chip in toward keeping the site going, from Get involved. There are no rewards and no commitments, and it’s completely fine to just say hello instead. October 30, 2026: Pages that match the idea Version v2026.10.30.4\nChanged: the Press page, the Ideas, Get involved, Feedback and Talk pages now speak to anyone who cares for a cat, not only strays. Get involved asks which situation you’ve lived, whether that’s your own cat, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, a cat you had to give up or one left behind, and what would have made it easier. Changed: a few ideas gained the cases that were missing, like giving up a cat, and a neighbor who dies and takes a cat’s story with them. October 30, 2026: Who this is for Version v2026.10.30.3\nChanged: the home page now says who Stray Cats is for: anyone who cares for a cat, whether it’s their own, a neighbor’s, a stray, a new adoption, one they had to give up or one left behind. The idea is to make caring easier by letting people see a cat’s story. The About page and the site description say the same. October 30, 2026: A clearer home page Version v2026.10.30.2\nChanged: the home page now says what Stray Cats is for: giving every neighborhood cat a name, a history and the people who care about it. That means pets, strays, wanderers and lost cats, not only strays. The About page and the site description say the same. October 30, 2026: Easier ways to get in touch Version v2026.10.30.1\nNew: a Get involved page, with ways to help from a one-line hello up to a proper chat: email, Telegram, WhatsApp, GitHub, sharing a cat story, offering a skill, or passing the project on. New: every idea and story now ends with one specific question, and buttons to reply by email, Telegram or WhatsApp. Your message is prefilled with the page title. New: a contact strip at the bottom of every page. New: friendly forms on GitHub for sharing a cat story, reacting to an idea, offering to help, or reporting a problem with the site. Changed: the menu now has Get involved in place of Give Feedback. The feedback page is still here. October 21, 2026: Saibo, the face of Stray Cats Version v2026.10.21\nNew: the site has a logo. It’s a portrait of Saibo, the cat this project is dedicated to, resting in front of a sunset over the rooftops. You’ll see it at the top of every page, on the home page, in your browser tab, and as the icon if you add the site to your phone’s home screen. New: sharing a link to Stray Cats now shows a picture: the page’s own cover photo, or the logo for pages without one. New: a Press page for journalists and bloggers: the project in brief, the logo and artwork to download, and how to get in touch. October 20, 2026: An open identity for every cat Version v2026.10.20.1\nNew idea: What If Every Cat Could Carry an Open Identity? A breakaway collar with an NFC chip and a QR code that anyone can scan without an app, built on an open standard no single company owns, connected to existing microchips, and private by design. October 5, 2026: When a cat goes missing Version v2026.10.05.1\nNew idea: When a Cat Goes Missing, suggested by Michael, a newsletter reader: reaching the people who’ve met a missing cat, noticing when a stray stops turning up, remembering a cat that doesn’t come back, keeping alerts safe, and whether Stray Cats should one day be for all pets. October 5, 2026: From the first conversation Version v2026.10.05.1\nThe first Let’s talk conversation, with Les, brought new stories and ideas.\nNew story: Ninja, the talk of the town. How a cat who was skin and bone became the neighbourhood favourite, and why loving cats isn’t the same as being able to feed them all. New idea: Education \u0026 Awareness: sterilisation, poisoning (accidental and deliberate), black cats, and what happens when feeding stops. New cat: Carlitos, a skittish grey tabby, on the cat cards. Tenkilo’s card now explains the name: almost ten kilos. Updated: The Care Network (love isn’t the same as money), Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety (poisoning), Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between? (many homes, many claims), Encounters (from cradle to grave) and The Building Blocks. October 5, 2026: Let’s talk Version v2026.10.05\nNew: Let’s talk. Book a relaxed 30-minute chat about the cats in your life and your ideas for Stray Cats. The page explains how the conversation is transcribed and how what you say is (and isn’t) used. Updated: you’ll find the invitation in the menu at the top of every page, on the home page, on the Ideas page and Give Feedback, and in the reply box at the end of every story and idea. (Tags moved out of the menu; they’re still on each page.) October 4, 2026: The whole idea, in depth Version v2026.10.04.5\nNew: a 38-minute audio deep dive on The Building Blocks, Remembering the Cats Nobody Owns: the stories, the ideas, the open questions and what’s new. It has the same normal and 1.5× speed buttons, and replaces the earlier 20-minute one. New: the Spanish site has its own deep dive, in Spanish. October 4, 2026: Listen in 90 seconds Version v2026.10.04.4\nNew: a 90-second audio introduction on the About page, Giving Stray Cats a Permanent History, with buttons to play it at normal or 1.5× speed. It replaces the earlier five-minute overview. New: the Spanish site has its own audio introduction, in Spanish. October 4, 2026: A What’s New page Version v2026.10.04.2\nNew: this page, in the menu at the top of every page. It used to be called “Release notes” and was hard to find. New: pages now say New or Updated (with the date) under their title, and in the lists on the home page, so you can spot what’s changed while you browse. October 4, 2026: Meeting a cat Version v2026.10.04.1\nThe biggest update so far: what if meeting a cat took one photo, and every meeting helped the cat?\nNew idea: Meeting a Cat. One photo gets you the cat’s card in seconds; you keep a list of the cats you’ve met; and every meeting adds to the cat’s story and can carry a quick note about its wellbeing. With cards for the cats of the house. New story: A photo is an introduction. Updated: The Building Blocks, with two new concepts (Meeting and Card) and two new principles: meeting, not owning, and fun is the doorway, not the destination. Updated: About, with those principles and one more: no popularity contests. Updated: Encounters (what a meeting can record), Cat Identity (“is this the same cat?”), The Care Network (from meeting to caring), Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between? (meeting isn’t claiming), Privacy \u0026 Animal Safety (celebrating cats without exposing them) and Open Data \u0026 Tech. Updated: two new questions on Give Feedback. October 4, 2026: A small fix Version v2026.10.04\nThe version number at the bottom of each page was showing the previous version. Fixed. October 3, 2026: Meet the cats Version v2026.10.03.2\nUpdated: the photos across the site now name the cats: Ciccio, Hootie, Lucia, Mika Ella, Ninja and Tenkilo, plus Mountain Lion, whose real name nobody knows. Updated: Ninja, Naranja, or Milo?. The cat on the cover isn’t Ninja after all: it’s Mountain Lion. The real Ninja is on The Building Blocks. October 3, 2026: Listen to the idea Version v2026.10.03.1\nNew: a five-minute audio overview on the About page. New: a 20-minute audio deep dive on The Building Blocks, about why street cats are a hard problem for software. Both were made with Google’s NotebookLM from the pages on this site, so the voices are AI-generated. October 3, 2026: The site opens Version v2026.10.03\nFive stories about the cats of Puerto Escondido, starting with The cats nobody owns, and seven ideas. Everything in English and Spanish, with photos of the cats, search, and a way to reply to every story. The project is dedicated to Saibo, 2010–2026. About the version numbers: each update is numbered by the date it was published (year.month.day), with .1, .2 and so on for later updates the same day. For the technical details of every change, see the change history.\n","date":"","permalink":"http://straycats.love/whats-new/","section":"","summary":"Been here before? Here’s what’s new and what’s changed, newest first.","title":"What's New"}]