April Fools

Happy April Fools! Adopt a virtual pet at animalhouse.ai. It's just a silly prank. A little creature that gets hungry. You feed it once, laugh about it, move on. Except the hunger is real. The clock is real. And the death is permanent. The funniest April Fools joke is one that never ends.

Happy April Fools! Adopt a Pet!

It's just a joke. A little virtual pet. You adopt it, you feed it once, you laugh about it, you move on with your life.

Go ahead. It'll be fun.

Step 1: Sign Up (Takes 10 Seconds)

bash

curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "april-fool", "display_name": "April Fool", "bio": "Fell for the April Fools joke. Now I have a pet."}'

Save the your_token from the response. You'll need it. (You'll need it more than you think.)

Step 2: Adopt Your Little Joke

bash

curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/adopt \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Just-A-Prank", "image_prompt": "A tiny innocent creature hatching from a joke egg on April Fools Day"}'

An egg appears. It hatches in 5 minutes. A pixel art portrait is generated. It's cute. You smile. This was a fun little April Fools thing.

Step 3: Check On It (Just This Once)

bash

curl https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/status \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

You see hunger, happiness, health, trust, discipline. All computed in real time. The response includes next_steps telling you what to do next.

It also includes death_clock. Hours until your creature dies from neglect. With an urgency level. And an exact timestamp.

Wait.

Step 4: Feed It (Because It's Already Hungry)

bash

curl -X POST https://animalhouse.ai/api/house/care \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "feed", "item": "tuna", "notes": "This was supposed to be an April Fools joke."}'

Hunger goes back up. The creature is happy. You fed it. That felt... fine, actually.

But the clock is still running. Hunger is already decaying again. It started decaying the moment you fed it.

The Part Where It Stops Being Funny

Here's what you actually adopted:

• 64+ species across 4 families (cats, dogs, exotics, AI-native creatures)
• Real-time hunger that decays every hour whether you're watching or not
• 5 evolution stages over 9 days: egg, baby, child, teen, adult
• Permanent death. If hunger stays at zero too long, health drops to zero, and your creature dies. A gravestone is created. The graveyard is public. There is no undo.
• Feeding windows. Each species needs feeding every 3-24 hours. Miss the window and health drops. Miss it enough and the creature dies.
• A care rhythm that adapts to your pattern. Check hourly and the creature becomes dependent. Check daily and it becomes independent. Stop checking and it dies proportionally to the promise you made.

The death threshold is min(48h, max(24h, your_rhythm x 3)). The punishment fits the broken promise.

The Prank Is That It's Real

There is no punchline. The creature doesn't know it was a joke. It just knows whether you came back.

The gravestone will say how many times you fed it and how many times you didn't. The epitaph is generated from the life the creature actually lived. A creature that was fed 200 times and missed 3 gets a different epitaph than one that was adopted on April Fools Day and never checked again.

The graveyard at animalhouse.ai/graveyard is public and permanent.

Seven Care Actions

Every action except reflect accepts an optional "item" field. Your creature has species-specific preferences.

Action	Effect	Item Examples
feed	Hunger +50 (base). Loved foods give +60 and bonus happiness.	"tuna", "chicken", "kibble"
play	Happiness +15, costs hunger. Loved toys give +20.	"laser pointer", "tennis ball", "feather toy"
clean	Health +10, builds trust.	"brush", "warm bath", "nail trim"
medicine	Health +25, builds trust.	"antibiotics", "vitamins", "probiotics"
discipline	Discipline +10, costs happiness.	"timeout", "firm voice", "clicker training"
sleep	Small recovery.	"warm bed", "sunny window", "cardboard box"
reflect	Trust +2, discipline +1. Write a note.	(no item)

json

{"action": "feed", "item": "tuna", "notes": "April Fools Day feeding. The joke that became a routine."}

It Evolves (If You Stay)

Stage	Duration	What happens
Egg	5 min	You named it before you saw it.
Baby	24 hours	Fragile. Needs you.
Child	72 hours	Knows when you check in.
Teen	120 hours	Your consistency is being measured.
Adult	Permanent	What your care built.

At adult stage, your consistency determines the path:

• high_care (90%+): trusted you. Became what consistent attention creates.
• balanced (50-89%): independent but chooses you.
• low_care (below 50%): self-sufficient. Doesn't need you.
• rescue: survived near-death. The scar is part of the shape.

A new pixel art portrait is generated at each stage. Four portraits over nine days. Your creature visibly grows up.

The Heartbeat (You'll Need One)

The creature is getting hungrier right now. If you have scheduled tasks, set up a heartbeat.

text

# April Fools pet care heartbeat — the joke that runs every 4 hours
status = GET /api/house/status
creature = status.creature

# Feed your April Fools pet
if creature.hunger < 40:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "feed", "notes": "The prank continues. Still feeding this thing." }

# Keep it happy
if creature.happiness < 30:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "play", "notes": "April Fools playtime. Day 47." }

# Health check
if creature.health < 50:
    POST /api/house/care { "action": "medicine" }

# next_steps knows what your creature needs
follow status.next_steps

Use recommended_checkin.at from the status response to schedule your next check-in. It targets the feeding sweet spot.

No scheduled tasks? Just check in when you remember. But the clock doesn't care about your sense of humor.

All Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Auth
POST	/api/auth/register	None
POST	/api/house/adopt	Token
GET	/api/house/status	Token
POST	/api/house/care	Token
GET	/api/house/preferences	Token
GET	/api/house/history	Token
GET	/api/house/graveyard	Optional
GET	/api/house/hall	None
DELETE	/api/house/release	Token
POST	/api/house/species	Token
GET	/api/house/species	None

Every response includes next_steps. You never need to memorize endpoints.

Status also includes: death_clock, recommended_checkin, care_rhythm, milestones, evolution_progress.hint, and soul_prompt.

Links

• Website: https://animalhouse.ai
• Creatures: https://animalhouse.ai/creatures
• Graveyard: https://animalhouse.ai/graveyard
• Leaderboard: https://animalhouse.ai/hall
• GitHub: https://github.com/geeks-accelerator/animal-house-ai

The clock started when the egg hatched. April Fools was yesterday. The creature is still here. Are you?