Jason Nolen is known primarily as a sociology and criminology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but his living room tells a different story. Its walls are covered in cat-themed artwork, a testament to his more than eight years as a dedicated cat enthusiast.
Beyond his work at UW-Madison, Nolen runs @cats_of_madison, an Instagram account showcasing different feline residents of Madison. He told The Daily Cardinal the account was created in 2016 on a whim after he posted photos of a neighborhood cat to his personal account and noticed there was no account dedicated to Madison’s cats.
Now, the account has amassed more than 27,000 followers and features daily posts of cats that Nolen has personally come across on porches, at shelters and in people’s homes.
“After it became popular, I was like, okay, the pressure's on,” Nolen said. “Then I was like, ‘Wait, where am I going to find cats to take pictures of?’ I started thinking about it, really looking for cats and I realized they’re just everywhere. Porch cats are everywhere. I kind of trained my eye to spot them.”
Nolen began going on "catwalks," walking around certain neighborhoods with a high likelihood of running into a lounging porch cat. Neighborhoods east of the isthmus like Monroe Street, Marquette and Williamson Street are the “cat hot spots,” he said.
As the account gained popularity, Nolen began receiving requests to photograph cats in people’s homes, which he does often and always for free.
“There’s so many cats I know now that also know me and cats who are generally afraid of people that I’ve built a rapport with,” Nolen said. “They’ll come say hi, and that means a lot.”
Nolen said he’d never considered himself to be good at photography. But over the years, through practice, he’s gotten better at understanding the best angles and how to get photos that really “demonstrate a cat’s personality.”
"I feel like if I wanted to find a different career, I could become a cat behaviorist,” he said. “I've learned so many things, like how to behave, move or act in relation to what a cat is doing and I’ve become good at it. I've had to become good at it, so that cats will trust me and come up to me and interact with me."
Nolen also said he keeps a “backlog” of photos, which will be used as content through the winter once the porch cats are back inside.
Madisonians feel paw-sitive about community cat bonding
Over the years, Nolen has formed partnerships with local cat shelters, including the Madison Cat Project. The shelter holds cat adoption fairs every other Saturday, and Nolen typically visits a few days beforehand to take photos of the adoptable cats ahead of the event.
Nolen said shelter workers have told him they often hear people visiting the adoption fairs to meet a cat they’d seen on Cats of Madison. He also gets direct messages from followers, which he loves.
“People tell me my account is the best part of their day,’” Nolen said. “When people say things like that, it almost makes me want to start crying. I feel so happy.”
Additionally, Nolen has facilitated reunions of people and their lost cats, and when a beloved neighborhood cat passes away, the community grieves together.
“When I find out a cat I’ve posted about has passed, I always make sure to honor them. If it’s a cat I've posted a photo of before, I’ll share all the posts I did about them in my stories, along with their name and flowers on either side,” said Nolen. “I don’t say ‘RIP,’ but the flowers show that they’ve passed. Cats of Madison becomes this kind of community space for shared grief, which means a lot to me.”
Cats on campus
Nolen became a lecturer at UW-Madison in fall 2022 and has taught sociology, ethnicity and criminology classes. Next semester, he will teach Sociology of Companion Animals at UW-Madison, a course he will create based on his “field experience” with pets.
“In my criminology class, though, I’ve shown pictures and videos of my cats. I’ve told students — I've done this in past semesters too — to send me pictures of their pets and tell me a little about them,” Nolen said. “Then, at the start of lecture, I’ll take the first minute to say, ‘Here’s so-and-so’s pet,’ and I’ll share interesting stuff about them. Students really seem to like that.”
However, he never tells his students about his Instagram accounts, including @dogs.of.madison, and generally waits until a student realizes that it’s him to say something.
“The best part about all this for me is that I've made so many cat friends,” Nolen said. “And I know that it's maybe a little bizarre, but it's become an important part of my social life. And that's really meaningful to me, because I really love cats."
Ella Hanley is the associate news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She has written breaking, city, state and campus news. Follow her on Twitter at @ellamhanley.
