Meet the Library Cat Who's Keeping Students Stress-Free While Studying

An adorable cat named Isambard Kitten Brunel, or "Issy," helps comfort students at the library of one of Oxford University's colleges.

In a YouTube video shared by SWNS, librarian Jamie Fishwick-Ford introduced her Siberian Forest Cat, who has come to work with her at the Lady Margaret Hall library since he was a kitten. In the video, Issy was peacefully perched on his mom's shoulder as she spoke about bringing him to work.

"In Oxford, we haven't had many library cats," Fishwick-Ford said in the video. "I decided

to go for a Siberian forest cat like Izzy because they're hypoallergenic, so people who are allergic to cats are less allergic to them."

Issy commutes to work with his mom every day and spends time in the library while she works. He loves to meet new people, and will spend time in the library, meeting new people, and lets the students in the library pet him.

"It's so hard when you're going away from home for the first time, and you miss your family, you miss your pets," Fishwick-Ford said. "But you can phone up your family, and you can't really phone up your pets. So, we get a lot of students who are missing their [pets and find comfort in Issy]."

Issy quickly took on an "unofficial welfare role" at the library and has even become a "local celebrity," with plenty of fans on his commute and at the library.

Issy's mom even revealed that "He's [already] visited a couple of the other Oxford College libraries, and he's already got a long list of colleges that want him to visit next term."

Oxford University's history of library cats

Lady Margaret Hall had been considered a "very dog-oriented college" before Issy's arrival, according to PEOPLE Magazine.

"There are two dogs on our coat of arms because we were founded by Bishop Talbot, and a Talbot is a type of medieval hunting dog," Fishwick-Ford told the outlet. "The college had a policy allowing you to bring dogs to work, as long as they mostly stayed in your office and you got permission [from] anyone else whose office they visited."

However, she "prefers cats," and "decided to get a cat and bring them to work instead of a dog." Fishwick-Ford also noted that Issy "follows the same policy as the dogs."

In the video, Fishwick-Ford also explained that while Oxford University specifically didn't have many library cats in its long history, there is evidence that library cats have been around for a long time.

"There are medieval manuscripts written by monks that have got little cat inky paw prints walking across the margins," she noted.

Related: Siberian Cat's Different Outside and Inside Voices Are Cracking Everybody Up

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This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 1:37 PM.