Real Agent Cases

Spot when an escaped indoor cat comes back to the door from days of camera footage with Gemini

Posted
by Zachary Thorman (LinkedIn)
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Outcome

Zachary Thorman's skittish indoor cat, Puff, had slipped out 72 hours earlier without anyone noticing, with nights around 30°F. Thorman had Gemini go through days of Nest camera history. It found a pattern: Puff was coming back to check the door during quiet hours, around 7 AM and after 10 PM. Gemini suggested waiting rather than searching, laying a tuna-broth scent trail and leaving the door cracked; about an hour into waiting, Puff ran inside. Thorman then used Gemini to find local vet availability and book a check-up.

Agent

Gemini

Prompt Recreated prompt

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Go through my home camera footage to work out when and where my missing pet has been showing up, and help me plan how to get it home.

Fill in before running:
- The pet (species, colour, markings): [DETAILS]
- When it went missing: [DATE]
- Which cameras and how far back to look: [DETAILS]

This is admin and preparation help, not veterinary advice. Don't diagnose or suggest treatments or doses. If anything I mention sounds urgent, tell me to contact my vet, an emergency vet or an animal poison control line first.

Rules:
- List every sighting with time and camera, then point out any pattern in times and places.
- Suggest when and where I should be waiting, based on that pattern.
- Suggest calm, low-risk ways to encourage the pet back (familiar smells, food, a quiet open door).
- Remind me to report the pet missing locally and check with shelters.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A sightings table, the pattern you see and a simple plan for the next few hours.

You'll know it worked when: the pet comes home safely.

Try this in:

This prompt has blanks to fill in, like [DETAILS]. We'll copy it instead of filling it in, so you can edit it before you send.

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Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Go through my home camera footage to work out when and where my missing pet has been showing up, and help me plan how to get it home.

Fill in before running:
- The pet (species, colour, markings): [DETAILS]
- When it went missing: [DATE]
- Which cameras and how far back to look: [DETAILS]

This is admin and preparation help, not veterinary advice. Don't diagnose or suggest treatments or doses. If anything I mention sounds urgent, tell me to contact my vet, an emergency vet or an animal poison control line first.

Rules:
- List every sighting with time and camera, then point out any pattern in times and places.
- Suggest when and where I should be waiting, based on that pattern.
- Suggest calm, low-risk ways to encourage the pet back (familiar smells, food, a quiet open door).
- Remind me to report the pet missing locally and check with shelters.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Once the pet is back, help me find a vet appointment for a check-up.

Output: A sightings table, the pattern you see and a simple plan for the next few hours.

You'll know it worked when: the pet comes home safely.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zthor_gemini-googlecloud-appliedai-activity-7417193272860651521-8QYj

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