Beginner 2-3 hours · 2 APIs

Build a Pet Adoption Finder

Find adoptable pets near your location with filtering by animal type, breed, and age. Connect with local shelters to find your perfect companion.

Needs a substitute

One API used by this recipe is no longer available: Petfinder. The rest of the recipe still works — swap in an alternative for that step before building it.

APIs Used

Petfinder

Search adoptable pets by location, type, breed, and age

Animals

IP Geolocation API

Auto-detect user location to find nearby shelters

Geocoding

Data Flow

User Action

API Call

Transform

Output

How It Works

Detect the user's location automatically via IP Geolocation

User selects animal type (dog, cat, etc.) and optional breed/age filters

Search Petfinder for adoptable pets near the detected location

Display pet profiles with photos, descriptions, and shelter contact info

Code Outline

Pseudocode / JavaScript

// 1. Detect user location
const geoRes = await fetch('https://api.ipgeolocation.io/ipgeo?apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY');
const { city, state_prov, zipcode } = await geoRes.json();

// 2. Get Petfinder access token
const tokenRes = await fetch('https://api.petfinder.com/v2/oauth2/token', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    grant_type: 'client_credentials',
    client_id: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
    client_secret: 'YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET'
  })
});
const { access_token } = await tokenRes.json();

// 3. Search for adoptable pets nearby
const petsRes = await fetch(
  `https://api.petfinder.com/v2/animals?type=dog&location=${zipcode}&distance=25&limit=10`,
  { headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${access_token}` } }
);
const { animals } = await petsRes.json();

// 4. Display pet profiles
console.log(`Adoptable dogs near ${city}, ${state_prov}:`);
animals.forEach(pet => {
  console.log(`${pet.name} - ${pet.breeds.primary} | Age: ${pet.age}`);
  console.log(`  ${pet.description?.slice(0, 100) || 'No description'}...`);
  console.log(`  Shelter: ${pet.contact.email}`);
  console.log(`  Photo: ${pet.photos[0]?.medium || 'No photo'}\n`);
});

Recipe Details

Difficulty Beginner

Time 2-3 hours

APIs Used 2