Stray is saving real-world cats as animal shelters fundraise on Twitch

StrayIt stars an adorable, orange cat and has become a huge hit. People absolutely love cats, and it’s a compelling game where the feline protagonist navigates through a dystopian environment in an attempt to return home. It’s a story that is touching the heart of cat lovers. Many animal rescue and foster groups have been able stream the video to help their cats and kittens.

It’s kitten season, which begins in late spring and runs through October, and it means that organizations are dealing with a surplus of kittens and cats in need of help. Many shelters and foster agencies have to turn to more unconventional methods of fundraising like streams or giveaways on Facebook, stream donations, and online giveaways. Stray is an excellent game for the latter of these, because, well, it’s a game that understands cats. (There’s even a dedicated meow button, which is very important.)

It’s a very easy hook for viewers — you like the cat game? There are cats in this house. I’m always a fan of seeing little orange kittens on my feed, and Twitch streams of the game have become a good way to help drum up support for a worthy cause. One such group is Crits For Cats, which currently has a Twitch channel. Twitter accountTo showcase foster and rescue cats and kittens. Crits For Cats promotes rescue and TNR (trap-neuter, return).

Fans who tune in to Crits for Cats’ Twitch streams get some good gameplay — the organization streams Stray but has featured a range of games in the past — as well as a live kittencam where viewers can watch the kittens play and redeem channel points for cat facts or to give the kittens treats.

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  Photograph courtesy Crits for cats
  

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  Photograph courtesy Crits for cats
  

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  Photo courtesy Crits for Cats
  

Stray’Annapurna Interactive (the game’s publisher) also collaborated with Cats Protection, an U.K.-based charity for cat welfare, and the Nebraska Humane Society. Through a raffle, the Nebraska Humane Society collected $7,000 to help cats in dire need. This money will be used for medical treatment and maintenance of cats under their care.

“Annapurna Interactive reached out to us in June to gauge our interest in collaborating on something around the release of Stray,” said Brendan Gepson, a marketing specialist with Nebraska Humane Society, via email with Polygon. “We landed on giving out 4 PlayStation codes via a fundraiser. […]The fundraiser raised $7K, with 560 donations. That’s especially notable because the vast majority of those donations were from people who had never donated before. So all in all, this has been a massive success for us and we’re super happy with how it turned out!”

The shelter will benefit directly from the fundraised funds. There are over 80 cats available to adopt “and more behind the scenes getting surgery and care,” said Gepson. “This year alone we’ve found homes for 4,000 animals and that number is always growing, so we need all the help we can get.”

Streaming can be used to educate and reach out, but it also allows you to share cool games. When cat rescues use this tool, they’re able to reach far outside of their local communities for fundraising. You can share information about kitten season and the importance of neutering your pet.

“This has really been a great experience for us — we got to connect with a whole new base of donors and everyone has been incredibly nice,” said Gepson. “We had a few people tell us they didn’t even have a PlayStation or any way to play the game, but they wanted to donate to help us out regardless. Right now we’re looking to reach out to some local streamers to keep this momentum going.”

Accompanying this with gameplay of a silly orange cat scratching rugs, making robot friends, and walking all over keyboards makes it much easier — especially if you can spice up the footage with unscripted kittencam antics.