Let Your Browser Tabs Cheer You Up With Puppies And Kittens

Let Your Browser Tabs Cheer You Up With Puppies And Kittens

Chrome, Firefox: It’s been a rough week for many of us and it’s likely you’re a little stressed out right now.

Screenshot: David Murphy (My Cats)

So, what’s a person to do? Here’s one easy boost: Let your browser cheer you up with some cute animals. Cute animals don’t care about politics, just playtime. Every time you open a new tab, you should see something that surprises and delights you — a cute animal to fill that growing void of despair and doubt.

If you’re on Chrome, I highly recommend checking out the “My Cats” extension from developer mystart.com. While it seems simple on its face — a new, randomised cat image fills new tabs you open — the extension also has a few little tricks that make it useful for more than just ooohing and ahhhhing. 

Let Your Browser Tabs Cheer You Up With Puppies And Kittens
Screenshot: David Murphy, My Cats

Screenshot: David Murphy (My Cats)

Not only does each new tab come with a built-in web search (you’ll want to set it to Google instead of its default Yahoo by clicking on the hamburger icon in the top-right corner), but you can easily pull up your favourite Chrome apps, bookmarks and a list of your most-visited webpages.

You can drop a to-do list onto your cat tab, see the time and the six-day forecast, quickly summon some “chill out” music, access shortcuts for your favourite sites, and basically create your own customised tab page — with a big ol’ cat in the centre.

There’s a version of the extension for dog fans, too. Equal opportunity and all.

If you’re on Firefox, you get the simpler treatment. If you just care about cats, and only cats, I highly recommend checking out the adorable Tabby Cat extension.

Every time you load a new tab, you’ll get treated to a new cartoon image of cats in different poses, with different colours, and sitting near (or interacting with) different toys.

The more tabs you open, the more toys you get, and some toys only attract certain cats so… you know the drill by now. Have fun spending more time staring at your empty, cat-filled tabs than the sites you typically visit.

Let Your Browser Tabs Cheer You Up With Puppies And Kittens
Cats love pizza. (Screenshot: David Murphy, Tabby Cat)

Cats love pizza.Screenshot: David Murphy (Tabby Cat)

I couldn’t find a killer extension for dogs — sorry — so you might just have to go with the slightly more generic Baby Animals Gallery New Tab extension.

You can probably guess what it does by its name, but if not, here’s a quick explanation: Open a new tab, get a new image of a baby animal on each one. Scream with joy. Repeat.

Like the Chrome extension I mentioned, Baby Animals Gallery New Tab also comes with a little search bar, weather updates, and a shortcut menu for accessing other sites. But you didn’t come here for that; you came here for adorable animals, and this extension claims to offer a constant rotation of “high-res baby animal images”. What more do you need?


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