Snapping kitty

Pascal Kuijpers, a Bachelor’s student of Food Technology, manages Wageningen Cat Watch, an Instagram account created to give all the cats spotted in the wild in Wageningen a chance to shine. ‘At some point, other people started forwarding their own photos too.’

It started as a joke. Kuijpers (19) already had a collection of cat photos he had taken in high school. During the AID, history began to repeat itself: once again, he came across cats everywhere he went. A month later, his phone was full of cat photos.

And then you just started an Instagram account?

‘Yes, I thought it would be fun to put them on Insta and the name Wageningen Cat Watch rolled off the tongue. It was just for fun, I had no big plans with it except to share my own photos. But my housemates and friends liked it a lot, so suddenly I got a lot of photos from them too. And then other people started forwarding their photos too.’

Doesn’t it take up an awful lot of time?

‘Not so much. When I cycle to university and see a cat on the way, I get off, pet it, take a photo and cycle on again. The photos people send me I sometimes leave for a day and then post them later. I don’t put a lot of effort into it – just take a picture and put it online. Some friends come across five cats a day and take photos of them all, and then I have to post them all. But I do it with love.’

Do you have a favourite cat?

‘No, not really. Some cats feature more often. One is called Saartje and she is apparently not so shy, so I get sent lots of photos of her. I don’t mind that, and I don’t want to get strict and say that photos can’t be posted. Besides, many cats look alike, so then I don’t actually see the difference anyway.’

Do people ever get angry because their cat is suddenly online?

‘I haven’t had any negative responses yet. I don’t think I really violate anyone’s privacy by posting the cat photos. Sometimes part of someone’s house is visible, but I haven’t had any problems with it. I don’t meet many cat owners online, but occasionally a cat gets recognized. Then you get a comment like “oh look, there’s Saartje!”

My housemate is my main dealer in cat photos

There are other cats in Wageningen that are spotted a lot too, like Barry the Haarweg cat. He has his own Instagram account, by the way. So I once got a comment from “Barry” who recognized himself in one of the photos on Cat Watch.’

Do you have a cat of your own?

‘Back home, I have a cat called Deus. Now that I’ve left home, he’s starting to forget me, which is a bit tragic. He’s a simple animal, he’s mainly interested in food. I am not allowed to pet him until I have fed him. Where I live in Wageningen, on the Dreijen, there is a cat that hangs around outside a lot too. But it doesn’t belong to me or my house. Student houses do sometimes take in a cat, but we wouldn’t be able to do so, unfortunately. Too many people and not enough space. That’s not good for a cat.’

Is Cat Watch here to stay?

‘A friend of mine just started one about cats in Eindhoven, but that account is not running very well yet. One of my housemates is promoting Wageningen Cat Watch to everyone she meets and she is also really my main dealer in cat photos. In recent months, I got a lot of “bonus guests” on the account: in summer, many international students go back home and then they send pictures of cats they met in their home countries. That happened spontaneously, which I thought was funny. I think I’ll just keep going, yes.’ 

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