About PetPass

Real pets, being themselves, in real time. Here's why that matters to us — and what we ask of the people behind the camera.

It started with a dog named Hemingway

Hemingway — Hemi to almost everyone — is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. His mom kept getting the same request from her nieces, and it was never how are you? It was can we see Hemi?

So the video calls became a routine. And the funny thing about those calls was what the girls actually wanted from them. Not a chat with their aunt. Not a tour of the house. They wanted to watch Hemi sleep. To watch him lose a slow-motion argument with a blanket. To watch him do, quite often, absolutely nothing at all. Ten minutes of a dog being a dog, and everyone hung up in a better mood than they started.

That was the whole idea, sitting there in plain sight. If a video call with one spaniel could do that for two kids, then a live stream could do it for anybody who needed it — including the many people who love animals but can't have one of their own.

So we built PetPass. Hemi has no idea. He's asleep.

The pets are the star

This is the one rule everything else on PetPass grows out of: people come here to watch animals. Not to watch someone talk about animals, and not to get to know the person holding the camera.

So the camera stays pointed at the pet. If a viewer opens your stream and has to wait for the animal to show up, something has gone sideways.

You're welcome on camera — just not the whole show

We are not trying to erase you. A hand offering a treat, a voice saying good morning, someone brushing a very patient cat — those moments are lovely, and they are part of why the animal is happy and settled. Keep them.

What we ask is that they stay the seasoning and not the meal. If a viewer dropped in at any random minute of your stream, they should find the pet doing something — or doing nothing — rather than a person addressing the camera.

A simple gut check: if you took yourself out of the shot, would the stream still be worth watching? On PetPass it should be.

Unproduced, on purpose

You do not need an intro, a logo, background music, a lighting setup, or a plan. Nothing has to happen. A dog asleep in a sunny patch for forty minutes is a good stream. A rabbit rearranging her hay for the third time is a good stream.

Polished content asks something of the viewer — pay attention, keep up, react. People come to PetPass to put something down, not pick something up. The un-produced quality isn't us lowering the bar; it is the whole point.

So: point a camera at your animal, make sure they're comfortable, and let them be an animal. That's it. That's the format.

Calm, kind, and safe for everyone

PetPass is built for anyone who needs a quiet minute — and plenty of our viewers are watching with a child on their lap or a grandparent beside them. Keep streams family friendly in language and in what's on screen.

The same goes for the animals themselves. Never push a pet into performing, and end a stream any time your animal would rather be somewhere else. A stressed pet is not calming to watch, and their comfort comes before anyone's viewing minutes.