A Pet Care web application for Pet Owners to find Pet Care Providers, and for people to earn a side income by registering as a Pet Care Provider.

Features:

• User registration & login
• Role selection (Pet Owner or Care Provider)
• plans to implement an option for "both" — and/or so a user can later add the other option
• profile creation for Pet Owners, Pets, & Care Providers (including pet photo gallery)
• Pet Care Appointment transaction system (book\request, confirm\decline, reschedule, cancel)
• with email confirmations and on-site notifications for both parties
• appointments logged by user, as well as per Pet for a Pet Owner; divided into "Pending", "Confirmed\Upcoming\Current", and "Finished"
• finished appointments still needing to be rated, commented, and paid; are highlighted so the user can easily find them
• Pet Owner ⇔ Care Provider rate & comment
• Pet Badges (fun way to determine user compatibility)
• proximity finder (using zipcodes)
• payment processing API
• security checks so only the right people can access certain pages
• keep user data secure\private
• input validation on all forms
• a tabbed user guide — how to use Petopia, FAQ, privacy, user disputes, appropriate content, how to get help if needed

Note: At this point, Petopia was incomplete! Due to the global pandemic, with all classes (and pretty much everything else!) going remote\online with Zoom and all the other tools at our disposal... instead of presenting live at AES on May 28th, everyone had to prepare a video presentation by May 12th.

So... we transformed from up-and-coming software engineers to videographers for a week to get these presentations ready on time! Even though we were a bit disappointed that our project was not complete, being almost four weeks ahead of our target completion date when we took a week off to produce our demonstration... Team Nerdvana had a lot of fun together making our video and feel like we were able to show the heart and soul of Petopia, along with our affinity for the project.

For this presentation, Team Nerdvana had completed all six sprints, achieving full basic functionality for Petopia. We only wish we had another couple of sprints to add in some additional fun features we had initially envisioned — "friends", a user forum, private/direct messaging, and a few other things!

However, development hasn't fully ended with graduation; as Petopia is something that we want to continue with on a part-time basis. We enjoy working on it, enjoy working with each other, and in so doing, continue to develop skills.

Petopia Source code & documentation

Petopia App on Github

Full Team Nerdvana Github

Team Nerdvana

My Significant Contributions to Petopia

for now, check out this page to find out what I do for fun!

My doggies are my babies, yes..... but I don't think of them as my "children", like a lot of other dog lovers do. No -- and no offense or anything -- but, they are dogs..... which are a lot better than kids anyway (haha!) and exactly why I love them so much. They are my beloved pets..... "pet" is a very special designation indeed. [=

Seriously..... I enjoy dogs because they are dogs. I don't want them to be anything else! I enjoy that they are not people, with their little doggie characters & personalities; and love my pets with all my heart, all my soul, and every molecule of my being. [=

I've had Shelties since 1983 when I was 10 -- and two or more Shelties at all times since 1985! I did 4-H & junior handling plus doggie obedience trials while in junior high & high school, and later showed in the breed ring too. Between 1989 and 2008 I bred & raised nine litters of Shelties -- raising those puppies were some of the best times of my life. [=

Before I could get into "Dog Sports" -- especially dog agility, which is what I really wanted to do -- my spinal disability progressed to the point that became impossible. =[ Around that time I "retired" from showing dogs at all.

I also stopped raising Shelties, in 2008..... for one thing, it is expensive to do it "right", obtaining all the health clearences, breeding fees, proper veterinary care, and so many other things. For another thing, I realized that I was having too difficult of a time adopting puppies out! Don't get me wrong -- matching someone with their little Sheltie soul-mate was awesome..... but, well, eventually I couldn't not bond with them too much, and when that 2008 litter came -- well, I kept all five. [=

Eventually, I returned to school to do what I really, always had wanted to do (see the 1st tab!) My last five Shelties were always all around me while I did homework, always so happy to have me back when I came home from school each day. [= They were my little furry cheerleaders, my little furry bff's, my constant companions..... my little pets who were full of unconditional love & acceptance, and every time I looked at them brought me joy & happiness -- looking into their sweet little eyes melted my heart. [=

My "Baby Jack" left me first, in July of '18, right before my Discrete Math I final exam (I did a summer math intensive course!) Then "Princess Possum" went after a brief illness in February of '19. (she was named that, because, as a blue merle, when she was born, she had a silvery and white muzzle and a little pink nose, and everyone said "she looks like a little baby possum!") Then my "Ms. Zoey" left me in April '19, again after a brief illness.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Winter term '19 saw my grades tank. ]= My elective that term (Anthropology, I think) I just stayed with my "B"..... but my two CS courses, I was determined to re-take and improve my grades (I had, at least, eked out a "C" in both). After all, I had credit hours to fill before graduation, to continue my financial aid, and not enough required courses left anyway -- it would save me from figuring out even more electives! I re-took both CS classes, snagging an "A" in each.

"Mr. Sawyer" & "Ms. Lacey" were with me all that last school summer and my whole senior year -- all through Senior Sequence & my awesome Senior\Capstone project with my awesome Team Nerdvana, and were with me at our "virtual graduation" -- and all through the global pandemic lockdown.

Mr. Sawyer, however, crossed the bridge in July '20, after a brief illness. It was just me and Little Ms. Lacey left. She was with me through the historic Oregon Fires in early September. But, my heart shattered when my Ms. Lacey followed her siblings in September '20, also after a brief illness.

And now I find myself "Sheltie-less" for the first time since 1983! I've had a hard time establishing a "new normal" in life, and am even more anxious to get settled into my new career so that I can re-build my little Sheltie family. [=

^-- me

Family gatherings are my favorite times! I enjoy spending time with my Daddy, step-mom Alyce, and my sister Jan plus her five kids & husband, my brother Mike, and my cousin\bff Cathy. I also have a few close friends who I love hanging out with -- even though some of them are out-of-state and our hanging out is limited to online or over the phone.

I made some new friends in school who I really liked hanging out with too, and working on projects together.

Our family especially enjoys playing games together -- and some of my friends do too, haha! And I mean "old-school games" -- like Monopoly, Dominos, Clue, Quiddler, Five Crowns, Mystify, Smart Ass, Qwirkle, Last Word, and various card games (especially Golf!)

Also I love making my home-made pizzas (crust, sauce, seasoned beef topping -- inspired by my Momma & perfected over the course of 20-ish years!) for birthdays, and doing the "big three" holiday dinners -- Christmas, Thanksgiving, & Easter. Our family also has a two-day games-and-chow party for New Year's Eve & New Year's Day. And I continue the tradition of my Momma's side of the family, that started somewhere around 1950 or so, of making "Funny-Face Hamburgers" every Halloween!

I inherited the nerd gene from my Dad.....

His old-school slide rule:

1954! When he was 18 and attending Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls:

And a leather "holster":