Twenty-seven small animals can thank Pokemon Go for saving their lives.

Sara Perez and her friend Matthew Teague were playing the game at a park in South Houston on Tuesday when they stumbled upon a cage full of 20 hamsters and seven newborn mice, apparently abandoned in the strong heat.

Sara Perez

”We were just surprised and confused, and we looked around the park and called out to see if anyone was there, but there was no one,” Perez told Click2 Houston. The cage was inside a box with no water and just a bit of birdseed.

“There was no one else at the park,” Perez told The Huffington Post in an email, noting that she and Teague rushed the animals back to her home.

Sara Perez

She said not sure why someone abandoned them, but suspects it’s because someone “got overwhelmed with how much it takes to take care to an animal, or they just didn’t care at all and left them to die.”

And it it weren’t for Pokemon Go, the pair never would have been there to rescue them.

“I never would have walked that far from my house if I didn’t want to take over that [Pokemon] gym,” she said. “But I’m glad I did.”

Sara Perez

Now, the Houston SPCA is caring for the critters. Perez said she wished she could take some of the animals in herself, but with two dogs and a pet snake of her own, her home is “not the safest environment for these little guys.”

The Houston SPCA wrote on their Facebook page that they are holding the animals until Saturday in case an owner comes forward, but after that they will be available for adoption. Holding any stray animals for a certain period of time is the group’s standard policy, SPCA director of communications Kerry McKeel said.

“In the event that an owner comes forward, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get them back,” she said, clarifying that staff evaluates every situation on a case-by-case basis.