Forget Prozac, booze, or retail therapy. Any animal lover knows nothing lifts a stubborn funk like an impossibly adorable baby animal. Just ask the Internet, with its glorious stream of LOL cats and shamed dogs making even the most mundane workday bearable.
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And for most people (who don't live in a tropical paradise), the weather forecast is a sure way to bring on a bad mood. So what better way to lift those dark clouds than with a fuzzy little puppy face? Enter Weather Puppy, an app that does exactly that.
The free iPhone application, developed by Miami native Suraj Hemnani and co-founder Shiv Takhar, is essentially a forecast tool that offers up a different puppy pic depending on the weather and time. There are multiple puppies to choose from, and users can even add their own pooches to the mix. And the best part? The cuteness benefits a worthy cause: animal rescue.
The duo wanted to make checking the weather a fun, emotionally engaging experience. As an animal rescue advocate, Hemnani was also inspired to partner with non-profits to help a cause he holds dear.
"It really started as an experiment but as we saw how happy it made people and got the non-profits involved it evolved from an experiment to a full-blown project," Hemnani says.
"We're helping the non-profits with free promotion and have structured a way of letting them fund-raise via the app by selling their own themes within it (sort of how they typically sell annual calendars). It's also a way for them to engage and involve a younger demographic of dog lovers," he adds.
Non-profit partners thus far include Detroit Dog Rescue, the Austin Humane Society, the Humane Society of Broward County and several others.
While the app is currently only available for iPhones/iPads, they'll be showing Android some cuddly love in the near future.
"We're evolving/perfecting the iOS version and rolling out Weather Kitty over the next few weeks and will turn more of our attention to Android soon after, though it's already in the works."
Speaking of which -- for all the cat people out there -- Weather Kitty is on its way. But in the meantime, you'll have to make do with cuddly canines. Deal with it.
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