Ancient Web: Pet of the Day Put Readers' Animals Online Since 1997
Karen and Paul Watts built a daily reader-submitted pet-photo community in 1997, with international contributions, linked cat and dog sites, and an archive still showing its database history.
Part of the Ancient Web Collection.
Long before an endless personalized feed of animal videos, there was a website with one simple assignment: pick one pet, show its photograph, and let its person tell everyone why it was special.
Karen and Paul Watts started the project in 1997, according to Karen's later account of its history. It grew sister sites called Dog of the Day and Cat of the Day, but the original Pet of the Day deliberately included the animals that did not fit either category: birds, snakes, horses, rabbits, turtles, and more.
The About page invites owners to submit a photograph and a story without paying a fee. It also says visitors from at least 125 countries and territories reached the site in September 2001. That is a claim grounded in the site's own traffic records, not an independently verified census.
A daily ritual preserved in individual stories
One surviving feature, dated November 18, 2024, introduces Cypher, a Nanday conure from New Jersey. Cypher's owner describes visiting a pet shop repeatedly, slowly earning the frightened bird's trust, and eventually bringing him home. That is typical of the site's distinctive format: a name, age, location, image, and a long first-person account written by the animal's human.
The navigation still offers previous pets, a Pet Talk forum, nominations, and links to the cat and dog projects. Each day's spotlight was a small act of distributed publishing, with a central editor selecting contributions from strangers.
The archive also tells a story about technical dependence. In a May 2026 appeal, Karen Watts explained that an obsolete FileMaker database prevented her from posting newly nominated pets. She wanted to upgrade the software and forum so the feature could resume. The page's apparent pause should therefore not be mistaken for proof that people stopped submitting animals.
That is what makes the website especially moving as Web history. A friendly daily photo depended on ordinary but fragile infrastructure: databases, volunteer enthusiasm, and a maintainer who could still open the original records.
Explore the current preserved Pet of the Day feature and its About page.
Part of the Ancient Web Collection.
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