A pet website made from your own photos, with a lost-pet page for the tag
Most pet sites are a small joy: a page of photos and a story that makes friends smile. One part can be practical too. A lost-pet page behind a QR code on the collar tag tells a finder who the animal is, any medical needs, and how to reach you, without printing your address on the tag. Build either from your own photos in a few minutes.
Three kinds of pet site
- Profile and story
- A website for my dog, my cat or my tortoise: photos, how they came home, favourite things, the habits everyone who's met them knows. Pure fun, and a good gift for a family member.
- Lost-pet contact page
- One page, opened from a QR code on the tag, written for a stranger who's just found your pet.
- Memorial
- A pet memorial website collects photos and memories after a pet has died. Many people find making it helps.
They can be one site: a profile with a separate lost-pet page that the tag points to, so the finder lands on what they need rather than on a gallery.
The lost-pet page
Write it for someone holding an anxious animal on a pavement, reading on a phone. Top to bottom:
- "You've found Biscuit. Thank you." The name, and a clear photo so they can confirm it's the same animal.
- How to reach you: a phone number as tappable text, and a backup contact. Phone first; a finder won't wait for an email reply.
- Medical needs: "needs daily medication", "diabetic, please don't feed treats", "deaf, approach from the front".
- Temperament: friendly with people, nervous with dogs, will try to slip a collar.
- What to do if you can't reach us: the nearest vet or the local council's stray service, by name.
- Microchip: that the pet is chipped, so a vet can scan it. You don't need to publish the number.
Add a contact form as well: it asks for name, email and a message, and every message is saved in your dashboard and can be emailed to you, which helps if a finder can't call. A connector can send each message to Telegram or Slack so it reaches your phone quickly.
The QR tag
Generate a QR code with any QR tool pointing at the lost-pet page, and have it engraved or printed on a tag. Test it from a printed sample on two different phones before ordering; small codes on curved tags can be hard to scan. Many places also require certain details on a dog's collar tag by law, such as the owner's name and address in the UK, so check your local rules: the QR code adds to the legal minimum rather than replacing it. Use an address that won't change: a short custom domain on a paid plan, or your anticode.dev address.
A pet profile page from your own photos
Choose ten to twenty photos with variety: puppy or kitten photos, a favourite spot, one with each family member, the face they make at the vet's. To show them, build the site as an app, which uses photos you upload and places each one, or, on a designed page, add them as entries in a CMS collection (an album, say) whose image field holds hosted addresses. Write alt text that describes the photo ("Biscuit asleep upside down on the sofa"), which the design gate checks for before publishing. A pet profile page for a rescue adoption works the same way, with temperament, needs and how to apply in place of the family stories.
Describe it: "a site for our beagle Biscuit with a photo gallery, his story, his favourite things, and a separate lost-dog page for his collar QR code". Playful (Fredoka) suits most pet sites; Organic (Figtree) suits a gentler memorial. For a memorial, a calm theme and a single photo at the top usually feel more right than a busy gallery. The memorial website and tribute page pages go further into writing one.
Limits
- No QR code generator. Use any QR tool.
- No location tracking. A QR tag only works if someone scans it; it isn't a GPS tracker.
- No photo uploads from visitors. Friends who want to share photos for a memorial can send them to you by email or a shared album.
- No video on the page. Embeds and video files don't play on these pages; link to the video on YouTube or Vimeo instead.
- Everything is public. Leave out details you wouldn't put on a noticeboard.
Questions people ask
Does a QR tag replace a microchip?
No. A microchip is permanent and often required by law; a QR tag can fall off. Use both, and keep your microchip details up to date.
Can I update the lost-pet page if my number changes?
Yes. The tag points at the address, so edit the page and the tag stays correct.
Can I make a website for my dog for free?
You can build and publish to an anticode.dev address on the free plan. A custom domain needs a paid plan; see pricing.