The story of Nyarden
Every garden starts with one cat. Ours started with a glitch.
Before the garden
Before Nyarden had a name, there was only a dark screen and a blinking cursor. One night something flickered in the corner: a small black kitten, half there and half not. Nobody had drawn him. He had simply wandered in. The first visitors called him Glitch.
The first strays
Glitch was not alone for long. Wherever he walked, the dark turned to grass, and strays followed him in: a ginger with a crooked tail, a calico that never stopped talking, a grey tom who only came out at night. Each one carried a number, as if the garden was counting them. By morning there were a million of them, hiding on the rooftops, behind the library, between the hay bales and in the boxes of the night alley. Every one of them was waiting for a home.
The little mouse
Then the first visitor moved a little pixel mouse into the garden. Every cat froze, wiggled and pounced. That is how the game began: people play the mouse, the cats bring the chase. Get caught and your cat gives a point to the one that caught you. Stay out of reach and your cat earns its keep, minute by minute.
A home for each of them
When someone adopts a stray, its number leaves the waiting list for good. It moves into Nyarden, gets a name and starts to wander the worlds you open for it. And every adoption sends a little help beyond the screen: to abused animals that need a second chance, to forests that need to grow back, and to animals nobody else will take in.
Glitch
Glitch never joined the list. Twice a day he still flickers past, never at the same hour, and he never stays. Those who catch him find what he leaves behind: a stray pixel that hums like an old monitor, paw prints that start in the middle of the lawn, a name tag with half the letters missing. Put the pieces together and they all say the same thing: he was here before the garden had a name.
The promise
When a hundred thousand strays have found a home, the whole garden will give Glitch one too. That night, for the first time, he will stop flickering. Until then, keep the mouse moving.