Cat as a Service

https://cataas.com/

by kaycebasques • 2 years ago

82 70 2 years ago

cataas.com

AtomicOrbital• 2 years ago

nice compliment to other REST api test data endpoint https://catfact.ninja/fact

ScotterC• 2 years ago

Missed opportunity to have

Have 1516 cats for meow

instead of now

for_i_in_range• 2 years ago

Now that's copywriting

sampli• 2 years ago

I think they are being hugged to death

metadat3• 2 years ago

At the risk of upsetting the "cat people":

What exactly is peaceful about cats? Cats murder birds and other generally desirable creatures for no purpose other than personal satisfaction*.

I'm struggling to see how they spread peace, except in net when in confined spaces with their owners..

Full disclosure: I've always been more of a dog person. But have known some nice felines, no doubt.

* If cats were somehow able to mostly limit themselves to killing rats and mice, I would be in love with them!

Edit: re: the extreme reactions - the cats people hate this comment, I'm not bothered by a reduction in Internet points, but the tribalism is also pretty hilarious, to be honest. My intent wasn't malicious <3 take care sensitive folks and stay safe

jason-phillips• 2 years ago

I believe the parasitic zombification of the host has something to do with it.

NavinF2• 2 years ago

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#%22Crazy_cat-lad...

borski5• 2 years ago

Toxoplasma gondii is not a causative factor of much of anything other than possibly toxoplasmosis.

But you’d need to basically be eating cat feces for that.

mikeweiss• 2 years ago

If you let them outside, then yes generally they become cute little murder machines.

devbent• 2 years ago

Sorry, I've always been a dog person.

Presumably not dachshunds who will happily crack the necks of any bunnies they come across.

(Or any of the the other myriad of hunting breeds!)

borski5• 2 years ago

I have four cats and a dog. I love both dogs and cats.

I used to be a “dog person,” until I fostered about 150-170 kittens (I lost count). My reasoning? If I give them up to adoption homes as kittens, I just get infinite kittens, which is undebatable cuteness with none of the “adult cat” tendencies.

Of course, then I realized that cats, while much-maligned, are really fairly incredible creatures, are extremely different from one another, and have extremely distinct personalities.

So sure, while they may create havoc for small rodents, birds, spiders and the like… they can be exceptionally loving and peaceful animals to their humans and other animals. My dog and cats cuddle together, except for one cat that refuses to accept the dog.

joe1234567• 2 years ago

I agreed with fostering too because we could have infinite kittens! What could go wrong? We’ve taken care of at least as many bottle fed kittens. It’s worthwhile but not always fun.

fipar2• 2 years ago

I have cats now, had a dog before, love both, and what you say about cats applies to dogs too in my experience.

metadat3• 2 years ago

Yes, my two Afghan Hounds did recently kill a rabbit. The only creature they've killed in their twelve years.. but you're not wrong, you're right. Thank you, I'll have to reflect on this.

renewiltord• 2 years ago

Such is the nature of pets. Between 30 and 80 people are killed every year by dogs. And yet they aren't outlawed. There is a threshold below which we accept risk.

noman-land3• 2 years ago

Most cats are chill. All creatures kill.

jmarcher• 2 years ago

Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!

defrost3• 2 years ago

Murderous cows and sheep slaughtering the insects on the grass they chew to death isn't quite the same degree of carnage as Rambo the cat though, are they?

CuriousCosmic2• 2 years ago

All predators*

throw463654• 2 years ago

Mmm, and every now and then, a bull terrier or german shepherd or mastiff or pointer or rottweiler or great dane or somesuch turns and kills a child, or even an adult. Usually a child of a dog person. At the risk of upsetting them.

(And that’s before you consider the number seriously injured by mauling. About a third of all people have been bitten by dogs at least once)

filleduchaos• 2 years ago

It's honestly a little absurd to me how much hand-wringing people do over cats killing birds and mice when society has more or less just accepted dogs killing/maiming humans as a thing that happens.

In fact, many dogs are explicitly kept at least in part for their belligerence, but somehow it's cats that have the reputation of being violent. Is it simply because cats' hunting instinct is uncommanded/uncontrolled by their owners, unlike with [well-trained] guard dogs?

CuriousCosmic2• 2 years ago

Cats murder birds and other creatures for no purpose other than personal satisfaction.

They do this in large part because we've intentionally bred them this way. Domesticated cats exist primarily for pest control so they are incentivized to always kill substantially more than they consume. When kept as working animals, their primary purpose is to hunt as many rodents and other pests (which when the job involves protecting grain, this often includes birds) as possible.

except in net when in confined spaces with their owners
Sorry, I've always been a dog person.

The same in large part applies to dogs as well. The difference is that while a cat may be kept outside entirely and kept free running, dogs tend to be more tethered to their owners.

This is especially true when you don't live on a giant property spanning acres. In these cases your dog generally is confined to your property and often comes inside for the night. And when leaving the property they are kept on a leash. Cats can be the same way as long as you either (a) select for temperament or (b) raise them from kittens.

Our cats stay inside but we go out with them on a leash from time to time for them to walk around and enjoy the wide open world. It's a decent bit of work to train them to do this but in all fairness the same applies to dogs with the exception that we already expect this of them so we go through the process of leash training them more or less by default.

TLDR: Cats and dogs more or less have the same sets of appeal. Cats have their own dedicated roles as work animals but as general pets their appeal is largely the same. IMHO the main difference is that cats tend to have clearer boundaries than dogs and at least when neutered they tend to keep up hygiene a bit better and smell less in general. Also cat biscuits and purring are weirdly cathartic.

seadan83• 2 years ago

They do this in large part because we've intentionally bred them this way. Domesticated cats exist primarily for pest

My understanding is different. That cats haven't really changed that much (in terms of behavior) while dogs have. That is to say, it's a cats choosing that they hang out with humans, it is a matter of convenience for them rather than being instinctively compelled (like dogs). The fact they naturally hunt rodents, means humans have welcomed cats aboard ships, farms, & in cities big & small.

Some interesting background reading [1]:

- "Did you know that not even a century ago, few cats lived entirely indoors at all?"

- "Cats formed a mutually beneficial relationship with people, and some scientists argue that cats domesticated themselves. Especially prized as mousers on ships, cats traveled with people around the globe"

- "Even though these changes to our modern lifestyle make keeping cats inside possible, biologically, cats are the same as they were thousands of years ago. Their role in our society has evolved and broadened over the last hundred years, but their basic behaviors and needs haven't changed."

- "In the thousands of years that cats have lived alongside people, indoor-only cats have only become common in the last 60 or 70 years—a negligible amount of time on an evolutionary scale."

[1] https://www.alleycat.org/resources/the-natural-history-of-th...

metadat3• 2 years ago

Ah, a cat leasher, I've met a few but never seen a cat that was content with the situation :D lol, cheers and keep up the good work.

elicksaur• 2 years ago

Such a typical pedantic comment from HN.

Dogs are also carnivores and would hunt and kill smaller animals if left to roam. In western society, there’s more tolerance for outdoor cats. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of an outdoor dog.

I like dogs more than cats, personally.

BLKNSLVR• 2 years ago

The focus of positive attention they provide for children is valuable and beautiful. This is also true of dogs, however.

They're cute, they have their own distinct personalities, they're curious. The primary reason I, personally, prefer cats over dogs is that you (usually) have to earn the affection, or least lack-of-indifference, of a cat.

The supression of their "kill everything" desire is basically to keep them enclosed such that they can still run and play but not destroy the local fauna. Not an easy or cheap task, depending on one's living conditions.

nomilk• 2 years ago

Is it possible to have pets that don't impinge on other life forms? Even placid dogs still need to eat (I'm not sure how popular vegan dog food is, although it does exist). Some (not all) plants are not a net-negative on other life forms, and some chemosynthetic organisms use chemical reactions as their energy source. In the extreme, perhaps those pets wouldn't have any negative impacts on any other life forms. </silly thought experiment>

shiroiushi• 2 years ago

Is it possible to have pets that don't impinge on other life forms?

Pet rocks are pretty benign.

cooperadymas• 2 years ago

My cats don't insist on licking my face or jumping all over my toddler and knocking them down and nipping at them. I don't have to walk them every day.

Then again, I love dogs too.

The whole cat-dog person thing is an overblown, unnecessary misconception of reality.

fargle• 2 years ago

and how, exactly, does your cat murder birds? did you leave the bird cage open?

oh. you meant feral cats. outdoor cats.

cats really shouldn't be outdoors in most circumstances, and they should never ever be feral.

and feral dogs kill cats, dogs, chickens, goats, sheep, and sometimes horses.

no animal does this for personal satisfaction. see that little word in there: "person". it means what humans do, nothing to do with feral or wild animals which do what they do because they are actually animals. it's a moral code that is far simpler and far more perfect than ours. no animal other than human has ever murdered another (killed certainly).

so you can be a "dog" person or a "cat" person or a "chinchilla" or "rat" or "fish" or "horse" or "chicken" person, or all of the above and more. its means you love and get along with the particular psychology of and interaction with those kind of animals. that's fine. one likes what they like. you may not understand someone else's attraction to spiders or weasels and that's fine too.

but you can't compare bad or feral animal A with domestic family member animal B as some excuse for why your favorite animal is better. that kind of superficial "reason i like X" is a sure tell one doesn't really understand any animal relationship at all.

the attraction to any domestic animal really boils down to the fun and achievement of learning and trust and communication across different brain and psychological types. it's also pretty good practice for communication with different human psychological types. it should be a symbiotic relationship. cats nay be a little trickier than dogs because, at least superficially, some dogs are natural "people pleasers". but dogs can be difficult in their own way. cats are a little less followers. they might agree to be your peer, if you are worth it. it's good for your humility, if nothing else.

and cats make this awesome rumbly noise when they sit on your belly and are happy.

borski5• 2 years ago

To be fair, cats do play with rodents and whatnot, sometimes just for fun, and bring them home to their humans as a “present” in hopes of praise.

Plenty of indoor/outdoor cats do this, and while I agree that cats shouldn’t be feral, if a cat is too feral to be an indoor cat but works well as an indoor/outdoor cat or barn cat, that is far superior to putting them down.

jjtheblunt• 2 years ago

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is you said “they” but, like the comment from borski, we have multiple rescue felines and a rescue canine, only one cat shows _any_ interest in hunting (bugs generally but wants lizards too), whereas the others are like wtf. And the dog and cats snuggle, play, have bery distinct personalities and are very smart in sometimes very individual ways. So “they” is the same logical error made by those who describe members of a group as all like a particular member of the group.

didip• 2 years ago

It's not web scale, eh?

asddubs• 2 years ago

when will people learn, cat as a service just does not scale

justinlloyd• 2 years ago

There are limitations to the bandwidth available in the cat distribution network which I don't think have ever been studied adequately. There's probably a grant that could be applied for in there somewhere. There's probably some interesting research to be done in cat distribution network congestion too.

I did some computer vision research, and an unpublished (though posted on a blog) paper in the area of feline toe bean rejection on a multi-touch display in a predator/prey simulated environment, i.e. a touch screen display with a virtual mouse (prey) interacted with by a real cat AKA "an expensive cat toy."

voxadam• 2 years ago

Someone definitely should have used MongoDB. MongoDB is web scale.[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdnDXsqiPYo

erikaww• 2 years ago

gotta be real careful what people upload

chuckadams• 2 years ago

Thought this was /bin/cat as a service…

alganet• 2 years ago

Same. I was excited with the possibility of someone concatenating strings for me over the network.

xrd• 2 years ago

I'm disappointed this isn't saas.cat. That TLD is a real thing, you know. Catalonia.

pimlottc• 2 years ago

And it’s restricted to locals

fullspectrumdev2• 2 years ago

Not entirely true. The registrar is apparently completely fine with non locals using it so long as the sites available in Catalan language.

NavinF2• 2 years ago

I get intermittent errors:

This page isn’t working

cataas.com didn’t send any data.

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

lenerdenator2• 2 years ago

I got a 504 timeout. We probably gave it the HN Hug Of Death.

badwolf• 2 years ago

PlaceKitten(.com) is also a similar handy service.

crtasm• 2 years ago

their server is down, unfortunately.

adolph• 2 years ago

This would be especially useful for OSes with a limited standard distribution. Post a file(s) and get a response with non printing chars etc.

lenerdenator2• 2 years ago

How do you address the competition that comes from the free and open-source Cat Distribution System (CDS)?

firefoxd• 2 years ago

Professionally, I use https://http.cat

caturopath• 2 years ago

Clicked the link thinking this was about felines.

Waited for it to load and decided it was probably about concatenating files.

Pleased to find out it was about felines.

hodgesrm• 2 years ago

It's heartwarming to see that people are not wasting their time creating useless services on the Internet. This one brought me joy.

krackers• 2 years ago

Does this support PUT so we can donate a cat?

fluentbyfire• 2 years ago

Upvote for the pictures of cats :)

kgeist• 2 years ago

Does their storage of cats confirm to GDPR?

pavel_lishin• 2 years ago

Asked for a cat that says "snitches get stitches", and got a very appropriate image out of it: https://i.imgur.com/Ws0PHFE.png

theolivenbaum• 2 years ago

That's great! I'll need to investigate how to integrate this to https://tinder4cats.com/ now

enduser• 2 years ago

Tried https://cataas.com/cat?type=square hoping for a square cat.

Cat as a Service

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