The collection includes Stanford Cat Network policy documentation, newsletters, and photographs of working cats on Stanford campus.

The Stanford Cat Network (SCN) was founded in 1989, at which time there were approximately 1,000 feral cats on campus. Faculty and students came together in collaboration with the Palo Alto Humane Society, and devised a plan to save the cats. They established the Stanford Cat Network to coordinate volunteers, publish reports of new, tame cats on campus in The Daily (in case any were lost pets) and trap all the cats for spay/neuter. After sterilization surgery paid for by the Palo Alto Humane Society, those who were social would be adopted into homes and the rest returned to campus under the watchful eye and care of the volunteers at feeding stations. At the same time, the Cat Network would educate students not to adopt pets they could not care for, distributing materials discouraging the act. This would keep the cat population from reproducing or growing, allowing it to slowly decrease over time. The program received buy-in from University Administration after the Cat Network returned President Kennedy's missing cat. The SCN established the first ever Trap Neuter Release (TNR) program in the country. Over the ensue decades the cat population declined and cat care literacy increased on campus. The SCN is now known as the Feline Friends Network.

2 Linear Feet

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