Because Stray is out on PC, there are already mods for the game, and because Stray is a game about cats, a lot of those mods are focusing on that.
We’ve featured some here already, like one that lets you change the colour of the playable cat, but this one by Sirgalahad172 is a little less subtle. It takes the cat and replaces it with, as is now custom, CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The creator says “this mod is intended as a joke as cj needs to be modded in any game that exists XD”, which is fair enough, but I actually really like the story-telling possibilities here. I’ve seen people describe CJ’s stilted appearance here as “horrific” online, but I prefer to think of this—and his other modded appearances—as some wild GTA side mission where CJ is cursed by an evil wizard, and is doomed to spend eternity drifting through other video game genres, experiencing everything they offer that San Andrea’s sprawling landscape does not.
If you want to install the mod yourself you can get it here, but just know that the first few minutes of the game might be a little unsettling, as all the cats from the intro share the same model as the player, so they’ve got CJ’s new body, but not his textures.
While we’re on the subject of swapping the cat out with other animals, here’s another example, even if it’s not strictly a mod. Instead of modifying Stray, this video was actually made in Dreams on the PlayStation 5, and replaces the nimble little ginger cat with…a clomping big horse. Which would make it harder to do all the platforming stuff, I guess, but might also make dealing with the Zurks easier since you could just kick them in the face.