— Questions

A quiet place for answers.

Everything we thought you might wonder about — pricing, privacy, the rescue share, and what happens to their story over time.

— Walkthrough

Your first week on Petlys.

A quiet tour of what actually happens after you sign up — from adding your pet to watching their story emerge. Every step takes a minute or two; nothing is required all at once.

1. 

   Step 01

   Create your pet's profile

   Add their name, species, birthday (or gotcha day), and a favorite photo. This becomes the cover of their story — you can change it any time.

   Two minutes. That's it. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.

2. 

   Step 02

   Capture the first moment

   A moment is a small entry — a photo, a sentence, a date. Add whatever feels right today: a walk, a nap in the sun, the first vet visit. Moments quietly gather into a timeline.

3. 

   Step 03

   Add care as it comes up

   Vaccines, medications, weight, vet visits, allergies. Log them once and they live alongside the story — easy to share with a sitter, a new vet, or family.

   Nothing here is required. Add only what's useful to you.

4. 

   Step 04

   Watch the story take shape

   As you add moments, Petlys arranges them into a soft, readable layout — with watercolor chapter covers, or a plain paper color if you prefer. You can preview any chapter at any time.

5. 

   Step 05

   Share what you want, with who you want

   Send a private link to family, or give your vet an emergency card with just the essentials. Nothing is public, ever. You control every share.

6. 

   Step 06

   Keep it safe — or share it

   Your pet's story lives here for as long as you keep the account. When you're ready, seal a collection of their best moments into a fixed keepsake you can share with family — chosen memories, in your order, private and permanent.

Want the fuller tour with the ideas behind each step? Read how Petlys works.

— Getting started

Beginning their story.

What is Petlys?

A quiet, private place to keep your pet's whole story — photos, videos, milestones, health records, and written memories. One pet or many. For as long as you need, and then forever.

Do I have to pay to start?

Every account gets one 14-day free trial. We do collect a card up front so you don't have to remember to come back, but we won't charge it until day 14 — you can cancel any time before then from your account. There's only one trial per person; signing up with a new email address doesn't qualify for another.

What devices does it work on?

Petlys runs in your web browser on any phone, tablet, or computer. There is nothing to install. Just sign in and their story is there.

Can I add more than one pet?

Yes. Add as many as you love. The price per pet drops as your family grows — see the pricing section below for the full ladder.

What kinds of memories can I save?

Photos, videos, written entries, milestones, and health records. Each pet gets 1 GB of storage — roughly 200 photos plus dozens of short videos. Videos are capped at 25 MB per clip (about 30–45 seconds of good phone video) so your library stays fast and your storage lasts. If you need more, a paid Memory Boost is available.

— The rescue share

Where your $0.50 goes.

Every pet on your account sends fifty cents a month into a shared rescue food fund. Those dollars pool together and become real food for volunteer-run rescues.

Where does the $0.50 go?

Fifty cents from every pet, every month, goes into a shared rescue food fund. 100% of it. Not a percentage of profit. Not a marketing round-up. A fixed dollar amount that is set aside before anything else.

How do those small donations become real food?

Every month we pool every member's fifty-cent shares into one fund. When the pool is large enough, we buy quality bags of food and ship them straight to volunteer-run rescues. The rescuers do not pay for the food. It simply arrives.

Which rescues get the food?

We work with volunteer-run rescues — the small organizations where one or two people show up every day to feed, clean, and comfort animals that would otherwise go hungry. We vet each partner carefully, and when we announce them, we do it with names, links, and records — not logos on a slide.

How do I know the money actually gets there?

Every shipment is logged publicly on our Impact page with a date, the rescue's name, the number of bags, and a verifiable record. We only show numbers we can prove. No vanity metrics. No inflated 'up to' claims.

Why don't you promise a fixed number of bags per membership?

Food prices, shipping rates, and rescue-program partnerships shift every quarter. Rather than lock in a marketing number that might not hold, we publish the real shipments as they happen. What stays true is the promise: fifty cents of every pet, every month, pooled and spent on real food for real rescues.

Can I give more than $0.50?

Yes. Inside your account you can add extra rescue shares — each one is another $0.50 a month, added straight to the same food fund. If you also have a referral badge, your badge will quietly gain a '+' to say thank you.

— Memories & privacy

Their story. Yours alone.

Who can see my pet's memories?

Only you and the family members you explicitly invite. There is no public feed, no discoverability, and no algorithm suggesting your story to strangers. Petlys is a private journal, not a social network.

Can I share records with my vet?

Yes. Create a private, revocable share link for your veterinarian or a trusted family member. They can view only what you have shared, nothing more. You keep the originals here on Petlys, in one place, always up to date. Turn the link off anytime.

Do you use my photos to train AI?

No. We do not train models on your pet's face or story. Your photos are yours. Full stop.

Do you run ads or sell data?

No ads. No data sales. No treat brands in your moments. No pop-ups when you open a memory. Memberships are how we keep the lights on.

What happens when my pet is gone?

Their story does not go anywhere. Memorial pages stay open, free, and complete — forever. Even if you close your account entirely, the memorial remains. It is a promise we keep.

Is there a storage limit?

Yes — 1 GB per pet included, which fits roughly 200 photos plus dozens of short videos, kept for as long as your membership is active. You'll see a live meter on each pet's memories page, so it's never a surprise. If you need more, a paid Memory Boost adds extra storage to that pet (price shown at checkout, billed on top of your membership). Being honest about this matters to us: nobody offers truly unlimited storage at this price, and we'd rather tell you the number than surprise you later.

Do you resize or compress my photos and videos?

Yes, and we want you to know exactly what happens. When you upload a photo, we resize it so the longest edge is 2048 pixels and re-encode it as a high-quality JPEG. That keeps your library fast to scroll and your storage lasting, while looking beautiful on any screen you'll actually view it on. Videos are capped at 25 MB per clip — longer clips need to be trimmed in your phone's editor before upload. The processed version is what we store; we do not keep the original file you selected.

Can I delete a photo, video, or memory after I upload it?

Yes, always. You are in full control of what stays on your pet's page. Open any memory, photo, or video and you can delete it — it's gone from Petlys. You can also delete an entire pet or your whole account whenever you want. Deleting is instant and permanent, so keep your own copy of anything you might want later.

Can I download my photos and videos back out of Petlys?

No — and we want to be really clear about this so you can plan accordingly. Once a file is uploaded to Petlys, it lives inside Petlys. You can view it, share it with people you invite, and delete it — but there is no download button, no export tool, and share-link recipients can't save the files either. Petlys is a keepsake, not a backup service. Please keep your own copies (your phone's camera roll is the easiest way) of anything you would ever want to hold onto independently.

— Bookshelf & collections

Curated. Sealed. Kept.

Memories become moments. Moments become the story. Your bookshelf is where you arrange that story into curated collections you can share as fixed keepsakes.

What's a bookshelf, and what's a collection?

Every pet has a bookshelf. On it live your collections — curated arrangements of that pet's story you can share as fixed keepsakes. A collection is not a new upload; it's a shaping of the memories, moments, and events already on the pet's page. One collection might be their first year, another might be the version you send to Grandma, another the quiet one you keep for yourself.

How many collections can I make per pet?

Up to ten per pet. That's a soft cap that keeps the shelf feeling curated instead of endless. If you hit ten, retiring one from the shelf makes room — and retiring never touches any sealed shares you've already sent.

What does it mean to seal a collection?

Sealing freezes a collection — every photo, event, and word — into a fixed keepsake with its own private link. The version the recipient opens stays exactly as it was the moment you sealed it, even after you go back and edit the underlying story. It's meant to feel like handing someone a finished story that doesn't rewrite itself while they're reading it.

What happens to a sealed share if I edit the story later?

Nothing. That's the whole point. Sealed shares are immutable — the recipient keeps seeing the version you sent. Your ongoing edits show up in your own bookshelf and in any live share links, not in sealed ones.

Can I close a sealed share after I send it?

Yes, anytime. Open the collection on your bookshelf, find the sealed share, and close the link. Anyone who still has the URL sees a quiet closed-door notice instead of the story. Closing the link doesn't delete the collection itself — it stays on your shelf, and you can seal a new share of it whenever you want.

Can recipients download from a sealed share?

No. Sealed shares are view-only in the browser, same as everything else on Petlys. There is no download button, no export tool, and no "save as PDF." Recipients read it there.

But couldn't someone just screenshot it?

Technically, yes — the reader is a webpage, and any webpage on any device can be screenshotted. We deliberately don't add download or export tools anywhere in Petlys because we want the experience to feel like a keepsake, not a file share. But we can't stop someone from capturing what's on their own screen, so please share only with people you trust.

Does sealing a collection use up my storage?

No. Sealed shares are copied into a private vault on our side — that storage cost is on us and does not count against your pet's 1 GB. Curating a collection (before sealing) uses no extra storage either, because it's just a view of the memories you already uploaded.

— Gift memberships

For the pet person in your life.

A quiet, prepaid Petlys membership — six months or a full year, up to four pets. Bought once, redeemed with a code. No trial applies to gifted time, and no card is required to claim one.

How does a Petlys gift membership work?

You pick 1, 2, 3, or 4 pets and either 6 months or 1 year of prepaid access. You pay once, we email the recipient a redeem code, and their paid membership begins the moment they claim it. No auto‑renew, no card required to redeem, no free trial applied on top — the gifted time is the paid access.

How much does a gift cost?

The same $3 per pet per month as a regular membership — no gift markup, no gift discount. A gift is simply that price multiplied by pets and months:

• 1 pet · 6 months = $18 · 1 year = $36
• 2 pets · 6 months = $36 · 1 year = $72
• 3 pets · 6 months = $54 · 1 year = $108
• 4 pets · 6 months = $72 · 1 year = $144

Can I put the pets' names on the gift?

Yes — that's the sweetest part. When you check out, you can list each pet's first name. The gift email will say something like "Grandma just bought a Petlys membership for Rover and Henry — happy birthday!" instead of the generic "for 2 pets." If you don't know their names, leave that field blank and the email will still be warm.

Does the recipient need a credit card?

No. Redeeming a gift is free of any card entry. They create a Petlys account (or sign in to one they already have), enter the code, and their paid time starts. If they later want to keep going after the gift ends, they can add a card at that point — but there's no charge on their end while the gift is active.

What happens when the gifted time runs out?

About two weeks before the gift ends, we'll send a friendly heads‑up so nothing is a surprise. When the time is up, the account goes read‑only until they add a card. Their memories stay safe — nothing is deleted at expiry. A gifted person does not get a 14‑day free trial afterward, because they've already had six months or a year of paid access.

Can I gift a membership to someone who already pays for Petlys?

Not yet — for the first release, gift codes can only be redeemed by an account that isn't currently on a paid or gifted membership. Extending an existing subscription with a gift is on our short list; if this is important to you, please write to Melissa and we'll prioritize it.

What about refunds?

Gift purchases are non‑refundable once the code has been issued — the code is sent within seconds of your payment clearing, so there is effectively no refund window on gifts. If the recipient never redeems, the code stays valid for 12 months from the purchase date and then expires. Please make sure the recipient email is correct at checkout; if it bounces, we'll refund a completely unredeemed code within 14 days on request.

Does a gift purchase count toward the rescue food fund?

We're going to be transparent about this: no — not directly. Our impact math is built around recurring memberships, where every pet, every month, quietly funds fifty cents into the shared rescue food fund that buys bags of food for rescues. A gift is a one‑time payment with a fixed end date, so folding it into the monthly bag count would inflate a number we can't sustain month over month. When the gifted person converts to a paid recurring membership after the gift ends, their pets then start generating monthly contributions to the bags‑of‑food fund — and it grows honestly. If you'd like to sponsor bags of food for rescues as a gift on its own, please write to Melissa and we'll set up a direct rescue‑fund contribution.

Can I gift more pets than the recipient currently has?

Yes — the pet count is a cap. If you gift a 2‑pet membership and they only have 1 pet, they can add a second later without any extra charge until the gift ends. If they want to go beyond the gifted cap (say, a third pet on a 2‑pet gift), they'd need to add a card and start a normal subscription; we'd credit the gifted time toward their paid‑through date so no one is double‑charged.

Can I schedule the gift email for a birthday?

Not yet — for now the gift email is sent immediately after your payment clears. Scheduled delivery is on our list. If you need the code to land on an exact date, buy a couple of days before and forward the receipt (which contains a copy of the code) at the right moment.