Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
First Look: Fluffy's Log 2.0.1
In keeping with the theme of light-hearted posts this weekend, I present to you: Fluffy's Log!
Fluffy's Log is Mac OS X pet management software from Shallot Patch Software. What's pet management software? Well, if your pet has been to the vet as many times as Ruby (above) has lately, you want to make sure that you're keeping information on everything that's taking place medically. That includes info about the vet, appointments, medications, and more.
There's much more in Fluffy's Log -- places to keep pet insurance data, schedules for feeding or grooming, even pedigree charts. You can do this for more than one pet, so if you have lots of furry friends, you can keep track of their history. While US$24.99 may seem a bit pricey for a single-tasker, this is an easy-to-use and very complete pet management package.
Fluffy's Log can even print out lost pet posters in case your pet decides to explore the world on her own. That's a nice feature, since the last thing you will want to do when you lose a pet is to spend a lot of time creating a poster.
How do you keep track of your animals? We'd like to know.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
vandil said 9:27AM on 12-28-2008
That software is superfluous and totally not needed. Especially for $25.
Better & cheaper ways to manage your pet's medical history:
-Create a text document in TextEdit and update it.
-Create a Stickies note and update it.
-Create a spreadsheet in OpenOffice.org (free)/NeoOffice (free) if you need to track payments.
Seriously, use tools you already have or that are freely available before wasting your money.
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Luigi193 said 10:00AM on 12-28-2008
This makes me really want to write a free version of this program...
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macbwiz said 1:07PM on 12-28-2008
Seriously. Give me an hour in XCode, and I'll have a clone. If the program actually had a point maybe I'd be motivated to make a free version.
Lerxst said 10:41AM on 12-28-2008
Google Calendar can take care of it...
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Paul said 11:14AM on 12-28-2008
Sorry, I'd pay maybe .99 cents if it were available on the iPhone.
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Susan said 11:52AM on 12-28-2008
There's also Safedog (http://www.DigitalFriedChicken.com/) but it's also $25. I wound up going with Bento ($49.99) and creating my own database to keep track of my pets. Some people love Bento, some people hate it, but for $50 you have the ability to create a bunch of different kinds of databases (pets, home inventory, etc.) rather than paying $25 for just one type.
Besides, we lost our dogs (two Labs) this summer and it took me ten minutes to create flyers to hand out in our neighborhood. It's really not that hard.
BTW, we found our dogs, just in case anyone is concerned!
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Sam Jordan said 1:18PM on 12-28-2008
If you actually need a application to remind to *feed* your animal, I'm not sure you should be allowed to own one.
Sloooow news day!
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mabhatter said 1:31PM on 12-28-2008
But you can be reminded to feed them ON THE INTERNET?
I thought stuff about your pet is what Myspace was for.. then other people can remind you! Then show them off on icanhascheezburg!
Mike said 2:17PM on 12-28-2008
Sure, it's childish, but I'm still laughing at the name. :)
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Marc said 4:45PM on 12-28-2008
Some developers just don't get it. But as long as people keeps paying for this kind of software we will continue seeing this crazy prices.
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Neurotic Nomad said 4:55PM on 12-28-2008
My mother in law has 20+ horses, 15+ cats, ~10 dogs, ~5 llamas, 2 donkeys, and just lost a pair of rabbits. Taking care of the animals is an all-day job with no day off. Bad weather, or a sick/injured animal throws off schedules and vet visits get shuffled regularly. The horse information is kept separate from the cat/dog information. The donkey and llama information... I have no idea.
When she gets sick or stuck out-of-town, the ranch grinds to a halt.
My MIL is not the build-your-own-database type. She more the get-photos-from-a-camera-to-an-e-mail or copy-an-AVI-from-a-CD-to-the-desktop and attach-to-an-e-mail type. Her only son-in-law, the one who is "good with computers", lives 2000 miles away.
This app is for people like her... and her neighbors... and all the people for three surrounding counties.
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Cam42 said 5:23PM on 12-28-2008
weird...
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Sam Jordan said 6:50PM on 12-28-2008
Use the $25 to pay somebody at $5 per hour to feed your cat, that's 5 feeding session, assuming it takes an hour to feed your pet.
If you had an alligator..?
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Faye said 7:44PM on 12-28-2008
I am owned by two cats. One of them was very sick with kidney problems through this May (she's doing better now). I bought a MacBook (my first Mac) in January and was quickly able to create a calendar in iCal to keep track of her medicine schedule (she was getting 2 different kinds of meds, morning and evening daily, plus fluids every few days). I printed it out and just checked off each dose. Easy. I also use iCal for their checkup needs (one cat is in the senior category and the other is quickly approaching it).
When one cat was in for a checkup last month, I quickly recorded his weight on my iPhone, using Notes. For $25 ... I'll just save the money!
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Frank said 11:48PM on 12-28-2008
i lost my kitty of 18 years to kidney failure this past summer. i know what you're going through. i'm crossing my fingers for you!
Rylin said 4:06AM on 12-29-2008
"I am owned by two cats."
If that's not the best way I've ever seen it put, I don't know what is.
Personally, I'm more of a dog person (cats have bigger egos than I do, and that scares me.. plus they're sadistic), and I've been "owned by" dogs since the day I was born.
Do you have pet insurance?
I'd imagine that someone claiming to be owned by their pet would, but I'm asking just in case.
It's a cheap insurance for unforeseen instances of a negative nature, and worth every single dollar/euro/pund sterling/yen/whathaveyou.
One of my former neighbors had her 8 year old cat fall off a windowsill some 3-4 meters above ground, landing on a metal hand rail, rupturing the bladder, wreaking havoc on the cat's internal organs.
$4000 later, she got to bring her cat back home with her, and people were appalled, saying things like "How could you pay that much? It would have been a lot cheaper to have him put out of his misery and just get a new one".
Personally, I tend to refute such questions with "Oh, your kid died from cancer? How could you pay that much in medical costs, when you could just make a new one".
(Yes, for anyone who wants to flame me for that, go ahead. I just consider cats and dogs to be family members.)
Had she had the cat insured, she would've gotten off with paying a tenth of that (i.e., still quite a bit more than getting a new kitty, but the "high" percentage was because her cat was entering the later part of his life).
Personally?
My puppy is insured to cover almost $8000 per year in medical costs, $400 in medicine + special dietary requirements in case of allergies, $500 in rehabilitation (dog-swim etc.).
Excessive? I don't think so. It costs me twenty bucks per month -- money which I'll gladly spend to make sure that in the case of emergency she'll be taken care of properly.
Twenty bucks is too much, you say?
I don't know, I think I can skip two McDonalds meals per month -- but if I really need that QP Cheese meal, I can opt for the $10/month insurance, covering up to $4000 per year in medical costs.
My old dog (passed away almost a year ago) fell very sick all of a sudden, 19 months ago, and fearing the worst we went to the vet prepared to let her go to sleep.
She was old (13 years), so we didn't really expect insurance to cover anything.
Turns out we had to shell out $500 to have three tumors and her (burst) uterus removed. The insurance company covered the rest (at her age, she was "only" insured to cover $2500 -- the 500 we paid covered the rest).
Three weeks after the surgery, she was galloping around like "normal", though the vet said "I don't think I've ever seen a thirteen year old dog gallop around, enjoying life that much".
Anyhoo, that turned out to be a rather lengthy post, but such things happen when we write about our hobbies.
For all you pet owners out there, have a look at insurance.
The day will come when you don't regret having it.
Jon said 10:07PM on 12-28-2008
This blog sucks. And I curse myself every time I come and check it in a faint glimmer of hope there could be a substantial post here. It's a wonder why Apple doesn't send special event invites to you guys!
People can discover the retarded iphone applications themseleves. Please stop covering these sorts of topics, it's been done 100x and is old.
What ever happened to you guys covering technical matters: hardware modifications, operating system tips/tricks/tweaks, open source projects, how the operating system functions and it's design, how the hardware is different than pc brethren, different filesystems, advanced networking, bash scripting, system calls, porting software, custom kernels, etc? How about articles on useful hardware addons? How about articles on hackintoshes, macintosh history, or ideas for new hardware or software?
My guess is the majority of posters on this blog (I know erica knows her stuff) are morons. Please just do us a favor and quit.
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Yazdgerd said 12:35AM on 12-29-2008
Disagree.
Rylin said 4:11AM on 12-29-2008
Sadly, Erica left for ars.
I enjoyed her posts over here, and I do agree that I'd like to see more technical stuff show up.
Molle said 2:25AM on 12-29-2008
#16: Agreed.
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