While May is known as National Pet Month, April 11 is recognized as National Pet Day. What better way to celebrate than by supporting the Stony Brook Cat Network, a club dedicated to protecting adorable cats both on and off campus?
The Cat Network takes pride in its work and currently cares for around twenty to thirty cats, but anticipates this number will increase as kitten season approaches. They care for cats both on- and off-campus and are always open to intake from anyone in the community who has strays in their backyards. They are continually looking to expand their outreach and maintain contact with vet clinics and rescues on Long Island.
The club’s Alumni Mentor, Aisha Sadiqa, a biology pre-med student, and the Head of Rescue Operations, Aiden Cage, a sophomore physics major, explained how the club leads a cruelty-free trap-neuter-release program that safely provides feral cats with the assistance they need by administering spays and neuters, shots and additional vetting before releasing them onto the campus stations they see as home. Depending on their cat-titude, Cat Network takes friendly cats into foster care and eagerly finds them loving homes.
The club has installed several feeding stations scattered throughout campus; if you look closely, you can find them on the pathway from the Javits Lecture Center to the Centers for Molecular Medicine, and in campus housing quads, from the West Apartments to H Quad. They shared plans to expand these stations on campus and expressed their long-term goal of “building a cat cafe right off the campus, you heard it here first!”
The Cat Network emphasizes reaching out if you have a feline situation.
Sadiqa and Cage stated, “Don’t dump cats that you may not be able to keep on campus. We’re always eager to help.”
They also shared a story about how they found an abandoned kitten with a broken paw by the hospital parking lot on their way to the hospital cafeteria. They shared how they carefully and quickly trapped the kitten, whom they named Fried Chicken, and moved her to safety where she could later get treatment. Thankfully, she’s doing well now, was spayed, vetted, socialized and adopted into a forever home!
Fried Chicken is only one of the many success stories that the club has had. Besides taking care of these critters 24/7, they are actively working on acquiring more fiscal and personal support through the local rescue community to give these cats the best life they can have, whether in a forever home or their campus colonies.
Sadiqa stated that “Since February 2025, we’ve found homes for over a dozen kitties.”
Sadiqa also emphasized the importance of spaying and neutering pets, which can be a controversial debate among pet owners, stating that the process is essential in “preventing unwanted litters of kittens suffering on the streets.” Doing so makes kitten season all the more manageable and prevents more kittens and cats from enduring danger and a life without a warm and safe home. Cage and her experiences of caring for stray cats and kittens from all walks of life have shown them the gravity of the dangers that feral and stray cats endure on a daily basis.
In addition to expressing the constant need for these cats to get fostered and adopted, the Cat Network needs donations to run their operations and fosters to open their hearts and homes to rescue kitties. They have volunteers to maintain the feeding stations and provide as much outreach as possible. The organization is led by undergraduates who use their own finances and volunteers to sustain support for all of the bills needed for healthcare and supplies. Besides expanding feeding facilities, the club plans to host workshops to educate the community on how to foster and safely trap cats.
The Cat Network emphasized that any help, whether donations or volunteering, goes a long way. On their Instagram account, they regularly share the campus’s “Cat of the Week” and what supplies are in high demand.
Sadiqa and Cage expressed an extra call for support, as “It’s kitten season and we want to be able to take care of all of [the cats]. Any help goes a long way to help them out.”
Any support the community helps these kitties and other stray and feral cats all over Long Island find their forever homes.
“[We need to] get the word out, so we can help rescue them. Expanding our outreach is one of the main goals,” shared Sadiqa and Cage.
And, while you’re at it, spread some love to these furry felines!
