A friend of mine’s cat had kittens this week. So, in honour of their fluffy, cute little gorgeous fuzz-faces, here are some pet-themed resources for you to build for your furry (or feathery) best friend.

Cat Meme Generator

Everybody loves a good meme. With the right combination of image and text, they can be both relatable and hilarious. There may be many meme-generating apps online, but why bother with them when you can build your own?

Our Cat Meme Generator teaches you how to write functions in JavaScript, how to use JavaScript to manipulate input by a user, and how to use oninput and onchange to make things happen live on a web page in response to user actions.

So grab your camera, take some photos of your favourite pet, and share their exploits with friends and family.

Hamster Party Cam

The Hamster Party Cam shows you how to turn a hamster wheel into a trigger switch to activate a program, how to write a Python program to take pictures and store them, and how to write a function that makes LED lights flash and play a song. In other words, it teaches you how to pimp your hamster’s cage into THE place to be!

Disclaimer: adding lights and music to the party can be fun, but remember that this may scare hamsters of a shy disposition. As a hamster owner, you have a duty to consider the wellbeing of your pet. Check out the RSPCA Hamster Guide to learn more.

Infrared Bird Box

We see a lot of infrared nature cams online, and we love to check out the photos and videos that makers share. From wild animals in the garden to chicks hatching in bird boxes, we’ve enjoyed them all.

Building an infrared bird box using the Raspberry Pi NOIR Camera Module and infrared LEDs will allow you and your family to spy on the wonders of nature without disturbing the feathered visitors to your garden.

Expanding on our pet-themed resources

Once you’ve built our fun pet-themed projects, it’s time to take the skills you’ve learned and build on them.

How about using the Raspberry Pi Camera Module to take a photo of your pet from which to create a meme image? You can learn more about getting started with the Camera Module here.

Why not try setting up your bird box to stream footage directly to the internet, so you can keep up to date when you are away from home?

Even if you don’t own a hamster, you can still use the skills in the Hamster Party Cam resource to create switches around the home. So try finding other things that move or spin, like doors and paper windmills, and see what you can hack!

Here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we take great pride in the wonderful free resources we produce for you to use in classes, at home, and in coding clubs. We publish them under a Creative Commons licence, and they’re an excellent way to develop your digital-making skills.