Non-profit and open source

Every cat has a story. Let's keep it with the cat.

StrayCats is a non-profit, open-source app in the making, for anyone who looks after or feeds a cat. It will let you see a cat’s story and add to it, so nothing gets lost when the cat changes hands.

Let's talk about your cats Read the stories

There's no app yet. It's being designed in the open, and you can help shape it.

Saibo, a grey cat with a white chest, looking at the camera with one white paw resting on a hand — Saibo, 2010–2026. StrayCats is dedicated to him.

For anyone who looks after a cat

Here's what StrayCats is meant to do, once it exists.

Cat owners
Keep your cat's story in one place, and find out who else knows it on its rounds.
People who feed the cats nearby
Find the others who feed the same cats, and pass on what you know if you move away.
Shelters and volunteers
Send each cat to its new home with its story: its names, habits, health, and who knew it before.
Cat lovers and travelers
Meet a cat with one photo, on your street or on holiday, and your meeting becomes part of its story.

How it will work

Meet a cat with one photo
When you meet a cat, take its picture. That's the introduction: no forms, no fuss.
Read the idea: Meeting a Cat
Its story grows with every meeting
Each meeting adds a little to one shared history that stays with the cat, whatever it's called and wherever it sleeps.
Read the idea: Encounters: Every Meeting Adds to the Story
The people who care for it find each other
Neighbors, owners and volunteers who quietly look after the same cat can find each other, without giving away where they live.
Read the idea: The Care Network

Privacy and the cat’s safety come first: no exact locations and no rankings. The data is open, and no single company is in charge.

Where things stand

There’s no app or code yet, on purpose. The first software comes after the ideas are shaped with the people who care for cats. Here’s what exists today.

A growing notebook
Stories that start with a real cat, and idea pages that follow the questions they raise.
Start with the stories
Shaped by conversations
Talks with people who care for cats have already turned into new stories and ideas.
Book a chat
Open source
The ideas and designs are public, and the code will be too.
See it on GitHub
Updated regularly
Every change is written up in plain words, so you can see what's new since your last visit.
What's new
For press and friends
A press kit, and a small card you can put on your own website.
Press kit · Card for your site
Prefer to listen?
A 90-second audio introduction. It was made with Google's NotebookLM from the pages on this site, so the two voices are AI-generated.
Speed