The shy stray captures hearts at the university, who have designated her the unofficial mascot
“When I touch her belly she’s up like a rocket. But she’s gotten much more tolerant,” said Sheri Beaudreau, one of the people on campus who care for Pepper.
There’s more than one mascot at USF St. Petersburg.
The university’s official character, Rocky the Bull, may have some stiff competition – from a stray cat.
Her name is Pepper, a tabby who appears to be 4 to 5 years old.
Pepper is no ordinary stray. Since she appeared a couple of years ago, she has captured the attention – and the hearts – of a small campus crew that takes care of her.
She lives under the historic Williams House, using a special entrance that was created by the university’s building department. She patrols the courtyard of the nearby journalism building, where human friends feed her and stroke her head.
And when she had a litter about three years ago, friends found homes for her kittens and arranged surgery to ensure she won’t be a mother again.
Laurie Berlin, who has worked at the Florida Humanities Council in the Peter Rudy Wallace Florida Center for Teachers building for 15 years, first noticed Pepper about two years ago.
“She was very wild, very thin, very emaciated … and in my head, I said, ‘I’m not going to go there, I’m not going to go there,’” said Berlin. “But she kept getting skinnier.”
Even after Berlin started feeding Pepper, it took some time before the skittish tabby started to warm up to her.
“Finally, I was able to scratch the top of her head while she was eating, and we went through that process. For a while, that was all I could do,” said Berlin. “But slowly but surely she let me pet her a little bit more and a little bit more, and eventually I would bring food down to the curb and feed her right next to me.”
As if on cue, Pepper emerged from her home as Berlin chatted with a Crow’s Nest reporter. Meowing softly, she cautiously sidled up to Berlin.
“This took forever,” she said as Pepper purred ferociously, pushing her head into Berlin’s palm. “I have tried to hold her a couple of times, and it’s tough. She’s really anxious.”
Berlin said it took Pepper over a year to get comfortable, proving that only the worthy deserve her trust.
Another human that Pepper deems trustworthy is Sheri Beaudreau.
Last spring, Beaudreau, who is the custodian of the PRW building, found she was working in Pepper’s territory.
“She started coming to the courtyard and began following me around.”
“When it’s quiet around here, like early in the morning before the students come, she’ll hang out in the courtyard and follow me from one class to the next when I’m doing my cleaning,” Beaudreau said. “She sits outside my custodial closet and waits for me to come outside.”
Jim Grant, USF St. Pete’s construction project manager, told workers to keep the doorway opening intact so that Pepper and her feline neighbors could still have shelter.
Beaudreau has worked for the campus since 1987 and moved to PRW two years ago.
When she first met the cat, Berlin had already selected the name Pepper.
“She’s had different names, but Pepper stuck,” Beaudreau said. “And she wasn’t starving, by then she was well fed by Laurie, and a few other people who were slipping her stuff here and there.”
During the recent renovation of the Williams House, Jim Grant, the construction project manager, instructed workers to keep a doorway intact so Pepper, and other strays that live under the house, could keep their home.
“This is (now) concrete, because the boards were getting bad,” Beaudreau said, pointing to the Williams’ House deck just above Pepper’s makeshift doorway
“He’s the one who instructed the workers to make sure that none of that was sealed up so the cats could keep their houses,” Beaudreau said. “Jim Grant made it possible for her to have that little entrance, he said ‘This is her home.’”
Pepper lives under the historic Williams House, where Laurie Berlin, Sheri Beaudreau and others bring food and look after the stray cat.
A few years ago, Pepper gave birth to a litter of kittens on a balcony of a nearby apartment building.
Though Beaudreau said she never met the woman who owned the apartment, she heard the story from others.
“The owner called the SPCA and they told her they would have to euthanize the kittens because they were too young,” Beaudreau said. “So, she decided to keep the cat and the kittens while they were nursing, got them taken care of as far as shots, and found them all homes.”
Beaudreau said the woman tried to keep Pepper, but that it didn’t work out in the end.
“Pepper would not stay indoors, she’s an outdoor cat.”
Beaudreau said although Pepper is skittish, she has gotten much more tolerant over time, “she can tell who’s friendly.”
“Sometimes I’ll sit on a chair and put Pepper’s food underneath it, because she feels safer underneath something – but a lot of times – I’ll give her food, and if I walk away from it, she doesn’t want to eat,” Beaudreau said with a laugh.
“She wants me to stay there.”
Until the last drop.
