As we turn our backs on the bowls of water and cat food, glowing eyes watch us from the undergrowth. I’m feeding stray cats near Stock Farm Road with Carole Miller, the co-founder and feeding and trapping coordinator of the Stanford Cat Network (SCN), and the cats — who would normally trust her — are a bit wary of me.

SCN is a non-profit organization dedicated to spaying, neutering, feeding and arranging for the adoption of stray cats living on the Stanford campus. The network came into existence in 1989 in response to a cat crisis. At the time, there were at least 500 stray cats living around campus, and University administration was considering trapping and removing them, which would probably have ended in euthanasia for the cats.

The network persuaded the University to let them deal with the problem by humanely trapping the cats, then spaying or neutering and vaccinating them.

“If you remove all the cats, the vacuum is filled by newcomers,” Miller said. The best way to manage the population is to spay and neuter the cats you have.”

After the spaying and neutering, which takes place at the Stanford Pet Clinic, workers decide whether the cats are socialized, and so can be adopted, or if they are feral, in which case they are re-released into their territory on campus.

The differences are small, and may take months to discern, but there are definite clues that Miller looks for.

“If they are kittens, they can definitely be adopted,” Miller said. “If they are homeless long enough, they become wary for their own survival. But a cat who has had people contact will usually make eye contact with you and talk to you.”

About 25 volunteers put out food and water daily for the animals at feeding stations around campus. Lindsey Boos ‘05 feeds three cats by the fire station and an unknown number in Rains Graduate Housing.

“It feels good to know that [the cats] have got food to eat,” Boos said, “and I love to see them every day.”

Sometimes, Boos recalled, a cat’s behavior toward her will change over time.

“The first cat I fed was named Flo, because she lived at FloMo,” she said. “At first, I didn’t see her. By the end of the year, she came within a couple of feet of me.”

Boos has had many interesting encounters over the years, including with animals other than cats.

“I went to set food down once and a raccoon paw took hold of the bowl,” Boos recalled. “I had a tug of war with him.”

Many of the cats fed by SCN are former pets whose owners abandoned them on campus. According to Miller, there is evidence that students abandon many of the cats at quarter breaks.

“They probably rationalize that the cat will be fine,” Miller said.

According to Miller, however, the cats cannot hunt well enough to survive. That’s where the network steps in.

Miller feels that the network’s efforts have been a success, citing the reduction in the number of cats on campus from 500 to a few dozen. Yet she also feels that there will always be stray cats on campus, and so SCN’s continued existence is vital.

“These animals would not survive without us,” she said. “We’re a solution as long as we keep [our work] up.”

To further reduce the number of strays, SCN conducts a “don’t-adopt” campaign in the fall, and a “don’t abandon” campaign in the spring of every year, to warn students not to adopt cats they will not be able to keep, and not to abandon the ones they can no longer care for.

Miller herself replenishes 17 feeding stations daily. As we walk away from the feeding station on Stock Farm Road, Miller turns to the watchful cats and says tenderly, as she says to all the cats she feeds, “Good night. God bless.” The eyes blink back.