diff --git a/ox/cache.py b/ox/cache.py
index b08e8d2..5d2aa61 100644
--- a/ox/cache.py
+++ b/ox/cache.py
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ import zlib
 from six import BytesIO
 from six.moves import urllib
 from six import PY2
+try:
+    import requests
+    USE_REQUESTS = True
+except:
+    USE_REQUESTS = False
 
 from .utils import json
 from .file import makedirs
@@ -94,19 +99,30 @@ def read_url(url, data=None, headers=None, timeout=cache_timeout, valid=None, un
     result = store.get(url, data, headers, timeout)
     url_headers = {}
     if not result:
-        try:
-            url_headers, result = net.read_url(url, data, headers, return_headers=True)
-        except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
-            e.headers['Status'] = "%s" % e.code
-            for key in e.headers:
-                url_headers[key.lower()] = e.headers[key]
-            result = e.read()
-            if url_headers.get('content-encoding', None) == 'gzip':
-                result = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=BytesIO(result)).read()
-        if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
-            store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
+        if USE_REQUESTS:
+            r = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
+            for key in r.headers:
+                url_headers[key.lower()] = r.headers[key]
+            result = r.content
+            url_headers['Status'] = "%s" % r.status_code
+            if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
+                store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
+            else:
+                raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
         else:
-            raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
+            try:
+                url_headers, result = net.read_url(url, data, headers, return_headers=True)
+            except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
+                e.headers['Status'] = "%s" % e.code
+                for key in e.headers:
+                    url_headers[key.lower()] = e.headers[key]
+                result = e.read()
+                if url_headers.get('content-encoding', None) == 'gzip':
+                    result = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=BytesIO(result)).read()
+            if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
+                store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
+            else:
+                raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
     if unicode:
         ctype = url_headers.get('content-type', '').lower()
         if 'charset' in ctype: