Founder’s Journal: Behind the App – Why I Built PurrTrack

Welcome to Behind the App.

If you have been following the Feline Insights articles, you know I spend a lot of time talking about holistic cat care, natural remedies, and the beautiful chaos of managing a multi-cat household. But today, I’m putting on my Jazzy Management LLC hat to share a different side of the story: the technical journey of bringing PurrTrack to life.

As an introvert, I usually prefer to stay behind the scenes and let automated systems do the heavy lifting. But building an app from scratch is a journey worth documenting, not just for other developers, but for anyone wondering why a cat mom decided to dive into mobile app development.

The Origin of the App

The truth is, PurrTrack was born out of sheer necessity. When you are managing a kitten caboodle of nine cats, generic vet pamphlets stop being helpful. Keeping track of Ballito’s specific feeding plan to maintain his muscle mass, or monitoring Trixie’s holistic kidney support, created a staggering mental load.

For a long time, I tried to force old-fashioned spreadsheets to work. But spreadsheets aren't built for the dynamic, daily realities of feline health. I needed a centralized, digital space to track weight, organize a Remedy Vault, and maintain detailed health histories. Since I couldn't find a tool that did exactly what I needed, I decided to build it myself.

From Concept to Code

I dove into the Flutter framework and the Dart programming language. I wanted the app to feel calming and intuitive—which is why the user interface relies heavily on soothing pastel purple and yellow themes rather than sterile, clinical colors.

Building the backend required setting up a robust Firebase database that could handle multiple feline profiles simultaneously, but translating that data visually was another story. While the health tracking graph looks beautifully simple, it was actually one of the most complex features to master. The challenge was layering multiple dynamic data points: perfectly formatting the dates, plotting the weight trendline, and overlaying the daily calorie columns. Because every cat is different, the graph had to automatically scale and adjust to each cat's unique weight and calorie range, while still allowing a smooth scroll all the way back to their very first entry for long-term analysis.

Every feature was tested against the real-world needs of my own cats. One of the biggest structural changes during development was renaming our internal documentation section. It started as a basic "Binder," but evolving it into the PurrFolio perfectly captured the comprehensive health portfolio I wanted users to have for their pets.

The Final Push to the App Stores

The last few months have been a whirlwind of beta-testing pipelines, fixing minor UI text (like making sure KITTEN CABOODLE was properly capitalized everywhere!), and navigating the rigorous app store review processes.

For example, to ensure a smooth initial review with Apple, I temporarily adjusted our RevenueCat billing configuration to remove the annual subscription option. It is all part of the necessary dance of publishing software!

Hitting that final "Submit" button for the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and the Samsung Galaxy Store was a massive milestone.

What’s Next?

Going forward, I’ll be using this Behind the App space to share technical updates, UI adjustments, and lessons learned from the business side of running PurrTrack. If you are here for the holistic feline care, the Feline Insights articles and the Remedy Vault aren't going anywhere. But if you want a peek under the hood at the code, the marketing strategies, and the founder's journey, you are in the right place.

Thank you for being part of this journey. The app is live, but the real work is just beginning!