Care Cat keeps two kinds of care on your own schedule: your plants' watering, feeding and misting, and your pets' vaccines, vet visits and medicines. This page goes through every screen and button in Care Cat, our plants and pets app for iPhone and iPad, by the names you'll see in the app.
Pick Plants or Pets
The first screen asks What are you looking after? and shows two tiles, Plants and Pets. Each tile says what's going on in that mode, like "2 to do today" or "Nothing due in the next 30 days". Tap one to open it.
Care Cat remembers your choice, so next time it opens straight into that mode. To switch, tap the grid button at the top left of Home (Care Cat jobs). Both modes keep sending their morning reminders whichever one is open.
Plants
Add a plant
Tap Add your first plant, or + (Add plant) once you have one. Type a name (Name, like Monstera), and add a Room (optional) and a photo if you like.
Under Your schedule, turn on the jobs you do for this plant: Water, Feed, Mist and Repot. Water is on to start with. For each one, set Every … days to what you actually do. The count starts from today, and you can change it any time. Tap Add.
Care Cat doesn't identify plants or give care advice. The numbers are yours.
Today
Plants' Home opens on Today: every job that's due today or late, with how many days late it is. Tap the round button on a line when it's done, and it stays on the list, ticked, for the rest of the day. Tapped by mistake? Tap it again to undo. When nothing is due, it says All done for today.
Below Today, Plants shows every plant with its next job, like "Water tomorrow" or "Feed in 5 days".
A plant's page
Tap a plant to open its page:
- Schedule: one card per job, like "Water every week", with when it's next due. Tap Done today when you've done it. Tap the card itself to change how often, or the Last done date. From there you can also Take Water off the schedule; its past entries stay in the history.
- Add a task: adds a job the plant doesn't have yet.
- Notes: anything you want to remember about it.
- History: every time a job was ticked, newest first, grouped by month. Long-press a line and tap Remove from history to take it back.
The ⋯ menu has Edit name and photo and Delete plant. Deleting a plant takes its schedule and history with it, and Care Cat asks first.
The plant-sitter sheet
Tap Sitter sheet (the printer button) on Plants' Home. Set From, how many days you're away (up to 14), Letter or A4, and a note for the sitter. The sheet is one page: a row for each plant (with its room and your intervals when the rows are big enough; on a long list, just the name), a column for each day, and a box to tick on each day something's due. Tap Print or Share to send it as a PDF.
Pets
Add a pet
Tap Add your first pet, or + (Add pet). A name is all it takes. You can also add a photo, what kind of animal they are, a Birthday, a Microchip number (optional) and Notes (the field says "Food, medicines, habits"). Tap Add.
Add a record
Open the pet's page and tap + (Add record). Pick the Kind: Vaccine, Vet visit, Medicine or Other. Type what it was in your own words, and set the Date. Past dates are fine.
Add the vet in Vet or clinic (optional). Any vet works, and each record keeps its own. Vets you've typed before show up as buttons to tap.
Turn on Due again and set the date if there is one. The 1 month, 6 months, 1 year and 3 years buttons count from the record's date, not from today. If you change the record's date later, the due date moves with it, and the app says so. Add Notes if you like, then tap Save.
Care Cat doesn't give health or medicine advice. It keeps what you write and the dates you set; ask your vet.
Coming up
Pets' Home opens on Coming up: anything due in the next 30 days, or late, for every pet, with "Due in 12 days", "Due tomorrow" or "3 days late". When nothing is due, it says Nothing due in the next 30 days.
When it's been done again, tap the ✓. That writes a new record for today with the same vet, and sets the next due date the same distance ahead as last time.
A pet's page
The pet's page shows the profile, then Due with the same ✓ (or swipe a line and tap Done today), then Records, newest first. Tap a record to change it or tap Delete record. The ⋯ menu has Edit and Delete (each with the pet's name), and Full history PDF (Pro).
The pet-sitter sheet
Tap Sitter sheet on Pets' Home. Set From, the days away (up to 31) and Letter or A4. Fill in If something's wrong, call, add a phone number next to each vet your pets have seen, and write a note. The page has a card for each pet with their notes exactly as you wrote them, and anything due while you're away with a box to tick. Tap Print or Share.
Morning reminders
Care Cat sends one notification on mornings when something's due, and nothing on the other days. Plants and Pets each send their own. They're on to start with. To change the hour or turn them off, open Settings (the gear at the top left of Home) and use Morning reminder and At. Each mode has its own setting, so you can change the hour or turn reminders off in Plants without changing Pets.
Care Cat asks for permission to send notifications the first time there's something to remind you about, not when you first open it.
Settings
Each mode's Settings has the morning reminder, what's free, the privacy line, a way to send us feedback, and More from the Cat family. In Pets, the Care Cat Pro row shows whether Pro is on and opens the Pro sheet.
What's free, and what Pro adds
All of Plants is free, with nothing held back: plants with photos, your schedule, reminders, the history and the plant-sitter sheet. In Pets, unlimited pets, vaccines, vet visits and medicines with any vet, due dates, morning reminders and the sitter sheet with Print and Share are free. No ads, no account.
Care Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase. It adds three things, all in Pets:
- Document photos: add photos of a certificate or a vet's invoice to a record, from the camera or your photos.
- Full history PDF: a pet's whole history in one PDF, with every record, your notes and any document photos. Print it or share it.
- Your own sitter lines: add lines like the Wi-Fi or bin day to the pet-sitter sheet.
Locked Pro buttons show "Pro" and the price from the App Store. If Pro is ever lost, the photos and lines you already made stay, and you can still remove them.
Your data
Every plant, pet, record and photo is kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share it. There's no account and nothing to sign in to. Care Cat doesn't sync. The sitter sheets and the Pro history PDF leave your device only when you tap Print or Share.
Quick answers
How do I switch between Plants and Pets?
Tap the grid button at the top left of Home.
Can I add records from before I had the app?
Yes, in Pets. Set the record's date to when it happened. Due dates count from that date.
Does Care Cat tell me how often to water, or what my pet needs?
No. It keeps your own schedule and records. Ask your vet about your pet.
Can I move my data to a new phone?
Care Cat keeps everything on your device and in your own device backups. There's no account to sign in to.
Try Care Cat
Care Cat is coming soon: free, no ads, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/care-cat