The award-winning game Stray is raising money to help rescue cats. PBS had a chat with several individuals that took part in this and the responses are heart-melting.
Lots of real-life stray cats got help from this initiative
The video game about a sweet red cat doing cat things is now rocking the real world by contributing to a number of cat organizations. Publisher Jeff Legaspi of Annapurna says “It was a bit of a no-brainer for us to see if there were organizations that would be more than happy to partner up with us” in a news piece that can be watched on America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) official website.
The animal rescue organization Nebraska Humane Society, according to Brendan Gepson, was able to distribute game tickets on social media in exchange for $5 donations to support their work. His conclusion was: “It was very successful from the initial fundraiser we raised about $8,000”.
In Brazil’s Gatos de Francisco, a volunteer named Rafael Almeida said he bought, played and loved the game. He also participated in raising some money with the help of the game: “I love the game. The amount that we’ve raised in the raffle was the equivalent of spaying 25 cats”.
Annapurna donated as well besides giving away codes
In addition to gifting codes, Annapurna has also made significant financial contributions, including a $4000 sponsorship of a walkathon to benefit the Stray Cat Relief Fund, which resulted in a total donation of almost $6500. Debbie Distanisloa, who is part of the fund, said: “We were able to raise $6,500 to go towards the medical care of our cats, which was just absolutely astounding. Just having a stray cat be the star of a video game is just — it’s just amazing. We’re really hoping that it can shed some more empathy on the community for the stray cat community”.
Basically, if you want to see some incredibly adorable kitties who have benefited from Stray’s success, you should check out the video on the PBS official website. Be careful though, we can’t guarantee you won’t melt!
Awesome Games Done Quick is another great initiative where serious amounts of money have been raised, in case you missed it.
Seeing something like this is pretty amazing and all we can say is hats down to Annapurna Interactive and all the people from the team and the organizations that made all this possible. The world is definitely not “purrfect” but together we can make it a better place.
