Edinburgh’s famous cats 

Here are some of the city’s most famous cats.  

1. Hugo, the West End cat

Hugo was well known in the West End of Edinburgh, where he was cared for by many locals despite having a loving owner at home!  

In 2023, he sadly passed away after being hit by a car. His death sparked a campaign to introduce ‘Hugo’s Law’, making it a requirement for drivers to stop and report the incident if they hit a cat. This is not currently a requirement.  

Hundreds of people shared their condolences and stories about Hugo in a local Facebook group, reminiscing about how his owner, Jane Rutherford, would post and ask her neighbours where he’d last been seen when she wanted to find him.  

In 2025, the community came together to commission a bronze statue in Hugo’s honour. The statue will sit on Williams Street in Hugo’s usual spot and will be designed by renowned sculptor Alan Beattie Heriot.  

2. Mr Spock, the Marchmont Wanderer

Mr Spock is a fond feline friend to many in the Edinburgh neighbourhood of Marchmont. He’s even become known as ‘The wandering cat of Marchmont’. 

Like Hugo, Mr Spock is a bit of a local celebrity. There is a Facebook group with 4,000 members sharing updates about his whereabouts and antics. He can often be spotted sneaking into his local Scotmid or into people’s houses.  

Mr Spock is a firm community favourite, and his Facebook page has even helped reunite missing pets with their worried owners.  

3. Jordan, the library cat 

Jordan was a black and white tabby who loved to hang out in the University of Edinburgh Library. Jordan was technically owned by Father Dermot at the university chaplaincy, but he was more often found lounging in various cosy spots in the library.  

He was such a fixture of the place that he was even gifted with his own library card from the staff.  

Jordan is so well-known that there’s even a book about him. Library Cat, written by PhD student Alex Howard, was published in 2016 and imagines what Jordan might be thinking on all his daily adventures. Alex has continued writing about cats; his most recent novel, The Ghost Cat, is set in a Marchmont tenement. Alex used the launch of this novel to raise donations for Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home and even visited us to sign some books!  

Sadly, Jordan went missing in 2016 and was never seen again despite publicity from the BBC and a massive outpouring of support from locals and fans across the world.