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A ginger-haired cat dubbed Lazarus became an overnight internet star after being hit by a car in Dunedin last month.
But along with his broken bones and sudden public profile came money - lots of it.
Within days, more than $2200 had poured in from sympathetic animal-lovers wanting to help pay for surgery to rebuild the battered moggy's body.
Most of it came with help from more traditional means, including print media exposure via the Otago Daily Times and publicity on SPCA Otago's Facebook page and website.
But, for the first time, SPCA Otago chose to highlight the cat's plight on a Givealitte page - the first such campaign it had tried locally.
SPCA Otago business development manager Kirsty Thomson said the Givealittle page alone had pulled in $850, including several donations from overseas as his story spread internationally.
That was money the organisation - and Lazarus - might not have seen otherwise, and every cent helped, she believed.
The key to the Givealittle campaign's success was to present a compelling story that pulled at the heartstrings, and Lazarus' plight fitted the bill, she believed.
"He basically did that himself through his story of woe and people feeling sorry for him. It's kind of easy to get people on board when there's an animal that needs help.
"Once the story got out there and people shared it amongst their friends, it became a fundraising campaign with real movement behind it.''
But while the campaign had been a success, it was something the organisation did sparingly on Givealittle and other platforms - perhaps three times a year, she said.
It was used only when individual animals' medical bills put undue strain on the organisation's resources, as otherwise, if used too often, it risked creating a perception the stories were being rolled out as a simple marketing campaign, she said.
The organisation relied on more traditional fundraising methods to finance everyday activities, but, in Lazarus' case, $2000 was "quite a lot ... to invest into one animal''.
"We've already got 100 others on site that need cared for in other ways ... we have to think carefully about whether we can actually afford to sink money into an animal like that.
"But ... if the story's going to bring out empathy in people and pull the heartstrings, and pull the wallet strings, we'll put it out there, because we want to save every animal we can.''
