(Image credit: ZeniMax Online Studios)

The Elsweyr expansion to The Elder Scrolls Online finally brought dragons to the MMO world of Tamriel. Their flying, fire-spitting presence is bad news for the cat-like Khajiit who live in Elsweyr, but beginning on October 3 it'll be good for the actual, real-life cats (and other fur-bearing creatures) who live among us.

From October 3 to December 9, ZeniMax will donate $1 for every five dragons killed to the Best Friends Animal Society and Four Paws charities. The Best Friends Animal Society is dedicated to promoting and establishing no-kill animal shelters throughout North America, while Four Paws is a European advocacy group "for animals under direct human influence," ranging from pets to the "wildlife entertainment industry." ZeniMax has committed to donating up to $200,000 in the Slay Dragons, Save Cats campaign, split evenly between the two charities.

Special events will take place during the charity drive, beginning with Dragon Rise, which offers three unlockable rewards for all Elsweyr players: A Green Dragon Imp pet, a Grim Harvester costume, and the Dragon's Treasure Trove. Dragon Rise begins on October 3, five days before the charity campaign begins, but all dragons killed during the event will count toward the total. Other events include the Witches Festival, Undaunted Celebration, Dawn of the Dragonguard, and the year-ending New Life Festival, which will actually take place after the charity campaign is over but still sounds like a good time.

Offing a million dragons to hit the maximum donation amount is a pretty big task, but it's actually already been done: Bethesda said that more than a million of them have been turned into boots and pocketbooks since the Elsweyr expansion went live in June, so just keeping up that pace over the next few months should be enough to get the job done.

Details on the Slay Dragons, Save Cats charity campaign can be had at elderscrollsonline.com. Ahead of the launch of the event, ZeniMax is retweeting photos of players' cats (and a few dogs) with the #SlayDragonsSaveCats hashtag on Twitter. Enjoy!