Pet Protect

Pet Protect is the AI-driven lost pet system. Residents register their pets in their portal. If a pet goes missing, the community can submit sightings or found-pet reports with photos, and AI matches them back to the registered pet — coordinating reunions without manual board involvement.

What it does

The flow, when a pet is lost:

1. The owner marks their registered pet as lost in their portal (with date and last-seen location)
2. The community sees a banner alerting them that a pet is missing
3. Anyone in the community who spots the lost pet can submit a sighting with a photo
4. The AI matches the sighting photo against the registered pet — high-confidence matches notify the owner
5. The owner reviews and confirms (or dismisses) the sighting
6. Once a match is confirmed, the owner and reporter coordinate the reunion

A separate flow, when someone finds a pet they don’t know:

1. The finder submits a Found Pet Report with a photo
2. The AI runs the photo against all registered pets in the community
3. If a confident match exists, the AI notifies the pet’s owner
4. The owner confirms (or dismisses) the match
5. Confirmed matches kick off coordination for pickup
6. Found pet reports with no match expire after 30 days

The whole thing runs on photo-based AI matching — no manual cross-referencing required from the board.

Pet registration

Pets are registered by their owners in the resident portal:

Field	Purpose
Name	The pet’s name
Species	Dog, cat, etc.
Breed	Optional but improves matching
Color	Important for matching
Photos	Up to 3 photos — more photos = better matching accuracy
Description	Distinctive markings, personality, etc.
Sex / weight / age	Optional details, often filled in when reporting lost

A pet record is linked to a property and an owner. If multiple residents in the same household want to register pets, they each register their own.

Marking a pet as lost

When a pet goes missing:

1. The owner opens their pet’s record in their portal
2. Marks the pet as lost
3. Adds the lost date and last-seen location
4. The community is notified immediately via in-app banner

The pet stays marked lost until the owner marks it found again. If the pet is never recovered, the owner can leave it marked lost — the system doesn’t auto-close.

Found pet reports

When a community member finds a stray pet:

1. They open the Pet Protect section in their portal
2. Click Report a found pet
3. Upload a photo of the pet they found
4. Add details: species, color, where they found it, when

The AI runs photo matching against all registered pets in the community. If it finds a confident match (high confidence score), the matched pet’s owner is notified automatically.

The found pet report has its own status:

• Active — looking for the owner
• Owner Found — match confirmed, coordinating pickup
• Reunited — pet returned to owner
• Expired — no match found after 30 days

Pet sightings (when someone spots a known lost pet)

If a pet is already marked lost and someone spots it, they can file a sighting:

1. They open the lost pet alert (visible community-wide)
2. Click I saw this pet
3. Upload a photo of what they saw
4. Add location and notes

The AI compares the sighting photo against the registered pet to compute a match confidence. The owner is notified with the sighting and the AI’s analysis.

The owner can then:

• Confirm — yes, that’s my pet
• Dismiss — no, that’s not my pet (similar but different animal)

Confirmed sightings let the owner contact the reporter to coordinate.

Match confidence

The AI assigns a confidence score (0-100) to each match. In practice:

• 80-100% — very likely the same pet; owner is notified prominently
• 60-79% — possible match; owner sees it but with less urgency
• Below 60% — usually filtered out as noise

The score is based on photo embeddings — AI-generated vectors that capture visual features. More photos in the registered pet’s record = better matching.

Where to set it up

Configuration → Pet Protect (or under AI & Integrations)

The setting Pet Protect Enabled controls whether residents see and use Pet Protect features. Default is on.

If your community doesn’t want Pet Protect (smaller communities, residents don’t use it), disable it. Residents won’t see the registration UI or banners.

What admins do

Mostly nothing. Pet Protect is designed to run between residents — the AI does the matching and the residents handle the reunion. Admin involvement is rare:

• Lost pet escalation — if a pet has been lost for an extended period and the community wants to help more actively, an admin can post a community-wide announcement
• Disputes / disagreements — if a finder and owner disagree about whether the pet matches, admins may need to mediate
• Removing inappropriate reports — rare, but possible (someone submits a report with offensive content)

For routine lost-and-found, the system handles itself.

Privacy

A few things to know:

• Reporter contact info is only shared when a high-confidence match is confirmed. A random sighting with no match doesn’t expose the reporter’s phone number.
• Photos are visible to other residents (that’s the point — community-wide matching). Don’t upload photos with identifying personal info beyond the pet itself.
• Pet ownership is visible to admins (which property each pet is linked to) but not necessarily to other residents.

Plan implications

Pet Protect is part of paid plans. The Free plan typically doesn’t include AI-powered matching features.

Common situations

”A resident reported a found pet but the AI didn’t match it to anyone”

Possible causes:

• The pet isn’t registered in your community (could be a wandering pet from outside)
• The photo quality is too poor for matching
• The registered pet’s photos are too old or low-quality

The found pet report stays active for 30 days. Sometimes a registration happens later or someone manually identifies the pet.

”Two residents are arguing over whose pet the finder has”

If both confirm a match against the same found pet, the system flags it. A board member should mediate based on additional details (microchip, vet records, etc.).

”Someone keeps filing fake sightings”

Like any system, Pet Protect can be abused. If a specific resident is filing nuisance reports:

• Their reports are visible to the board
• You can ban the user via the standard process — see Removing or banning a user

”We want to help find a lost pet but don’t see a way to push it to the whole community”

The lost-pet banner already shows to all residents. For more outreach, send a regular community announcement with the pet’s details.

”Can residents see what’s been registered without lost pets being reported?”

Generally, the registry is owner-private — your registered pet is visible to you and admins, not to other residents. Sightings and found-pet reports are community-visible.

Where to go next

• Herald Chat — the other AI-powered resident-facing feature
• Plan and billing — what’s included where
• What residents see vs. admins — privacy boundaries