This article was originally written by Filipa Gaspar for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
Meet Isambard Kitten Brunel: the beloved Oxford University library cat who keeps students company during their studies. Also known as Issy, the fluffy Siberian forest cat commutes by bus to the library at Lady Margaret Hall, one of the colleges at Oxford, alongside his owner, librarian Jamie Fishwick-Ford.
Fishwick-Ford, 43, began bringing Issy to work immediately after adopting him as a kitten six years ago. The kitty spends most of his time there relaxing in his owner’s office, only leaving when people want to pet him or when he’s taken outside for some exercise and tree climbing. Issy wears a harness and leash outside and mostly travels on Fishwick-Ford’s shoulder.
“He’s not allowed to free roam around the library or the college,” Fishwick-Ford, who’s been with the library for 10 years, told SWNS. “He’s proved very popular with the students, and he definitely loves to be loved by them. There are some students who come to see him several times a week. Lots of people bring friends and family to meet him, and he’s become a bit of an unofficial mascot. He even appears on some of our outreach team’s stickers.”
When Fishwick-Ford began working at Lady Margaret Hall, it was a “very dog-oriented college,” she said. “There’s two dogs on our coat of arms because we were founded by Bishop Talbot, and a Talbot is a type of medieval hunting dog. The [former] principal of the college, Alan Rusbridger, had two dogs, and several staff members had dogs they brought to college.”
She continued, “College had a policy allowing you to bring dogs to work, as long as they mostly stayed in your office and you got permission of anyone else whose office they visited. But I prefer cats!” So Fishwick-Ford decided to get a cat to bring with her to work.
Issy also serves as an unofficial welfare animal, and is particularly favored by resident students who miss their family pets, Fishwick-Ford shared.
“It can be really tough being away from home for the first time and away from pets you’ve known all your life, and it’s a lot easier to phone up your parents if you miss them than to phone up your cats,” she said.
She added, “He’s always very friendly and calm, but he’s even more so when someone is upset or crying. He’s had several people come to him in tears after they’ve accidentally deleted their dissertations or so on. I deliberately got a Siberian forest cat because they are hypoallergenic, so it wouldn’t set people’s allergies off as much, both in the library and on the commute.”
Issy is also very popular on the bus and when the pair are walking around town, where he’s become quite the local celebrity: People sometimes stop Fishwick-Ford on the street to ask if he’s the famous library cat and get a photo with him.
“On the bus he expects to get attention from the other passengers, and will meow until he gets fussed by them,” she shared. “He also visits my local pub with me fairly frequently. They have a policy of allowing dogs, and I just apply that to him too.”
Recently, Issy has been visiting students at other Oxford colleges, and as a result, has become even more beloved. “Other colleges also sometimes ask for visits from the famous library cat, so we go to visit them and give their students a chance to meet him. Several other colleges have their own cats or other pets. Dogs and tortoises are both common that live on site or visit them, but I think he’s the only library pet!” Fishwick-Ford said, adding, “He’s already got a long list of colleges that wants him to visit next term, so his diary is very booked up at the moment.”
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