Pepper Memorial, Friday, 17 August, 2012, 6pm at Tower

Pepper was an extraordinary cat, curious and friendly, adventurous and outgoing. In two short years he became a celebrity on Prospect Hill, and touched the lives of many. His spirit brought people together.

In that spirit, please come together with us to remember Pepper, this Friday the 17th of August, 6pm, at at Prospect Hill Park.

We will have flower pots containing soil mixed with some of Pepper's ashes to give out. The idea is to have Pepper continue to dwell thoroughout the neighborhood. If you can't make the ceremony but would like a flower pot, please let us know.

RSVP by comment below please, so that we can have an approximate headcount.

-Eric

R.I.P. Pepper; ~Feb 2010 -- 24 July 2012

We are tremendously sad to tell you all that Pepper died last night. He was struck crossing the McGrath Highway near the bottom of Prospect Hill, and was found shortly afterward by one of his Blog followers, Barry, who called us right away.

Pepper was a joy to know and “own,” and I know he charmed and was loved by many. I will miss him dearly, as will our entire family, especially Meredith and Zachary, who loved him first and best.

Our plan is to hold a little ceremony at Prospect Hill Park in a week or so, and invite the neighborhood to share their favorite Pepper stories. We will post the time and date here once we have that organized.

In the meantime, if you are so moved, we suggest donations be made in Pepper’s memory to the Alliance for Animals in South Boston.

Sincerely,

Eric and the Fellinger Family

Pepper is back home! Thank you everyone!

Please Bring Pepper Home

By now we have had lots of reports that Pepper is well and being his usual, sociable self around the nighborhood. One person has confessed to feeding him regularly. But in this kind of weather I am very surprised he hasn't made it home, and suspect someone is sheltering him. Which, in general, is OK. But, we haven't seen him in almost two weeks. It's time for him to check in at home.

So, if you are hosting him, please see him home tonight or tomorrow morning. If you should see him out & about, call us (802 859 0859) or, if you are able to gather him up & bring him home we'd appreciate it. #12 Prospect Hill Ave. Thanks.

-EF

Pepper Care

Hello, everyone

I am re-posting the basics of Pepper care, because it seems he's been doing a lot of visiting. We'd like to hear about visits more often, especially from people who choose to allow him into their homes and / or to feed him. He's been absent from our house for several days and we were getting worried. Turns out, many have seen him and he's fine.

Thanks all!

-EF

Pepper Care

If you see Pepper out & about, please consider adding a blog post or a comment to let us know. If Pepper comes to visit and you'd like to let him stick around, please let us know that. Just please bear in mind the following:

* If you need to call us please do so between 6am and 10pm. If it's the middle of the night and you don't want to keep him, just put him out! Exceptions are

1) if he seems hurt (ravenously hungry doesn't qualify)

2) if the weather is terrible, or

3) if he's flirting with crossing a busy street (McGrath, Somerville Ave, Washington St, Bow St).

In those instances you can call anytime.

* If you find him off of Prospect Hill (meaning on the wrong side of Union Sq, the McGrath Hwy, Vinal, Highland, Summer, or Washington) please call us or bring him home.

* If Pepper is Visiting You PLEASE DON'T FEED HIM unless you plan to host him on a regular basis over the winter. He needs to learn where the consistent source(s) of food is(are).

* We don't mind him having extended visits (like a couple/3 days) in homes that enjoy having him around... he is a really fun cat! But, of course you'll need to have a litter box and all. Moreover, even if you had a hard time keeping him out of the house, after about 24 hours you'll have a harder time keeping him in!

Thanks, here's to successful community pet management!

-Eric F

Pepper missing again, possibly hiding from scary new kittens

Pepper's missing again.

So... a week ago, we discovered a mama cat and 5 kittens living in a garage a couple doors down, and we took them all in.  The first day we had them, Pepper saw one of the kittens, growled, and took off.

After 2 days, we lodged the mama & kittens with Jackie Lippman who does rescue & placement, with the plan to take 2 of the kittens once they were old enough. A couple of days later, we were convinced that the kittens were old enough and on Saturday, we brought them home. That afternoon, we saw Pepper outside the house and encouraged him to come in. He never saw the kittens, but definitely acted like something was wrong, and didn't even come in the door. We have not seen him since.

Hopefully he is couchsurfing with one or more of his fans? Please let us know if you see him. Thanks.

-EF

Earth Day 2012: All is well

Rainy April 22nd, 2012, and Pepper's been in since noon. Smart cat. Me too. I'll leave this post up until Pepper goes missing again... hopefully it'll be a while!

Valentines Day 2012 - Pepper missing again

Hi all

We last saw Pepper on Saturday night (11 Feb 2012) when he followed us up to our neighbor's around 60 Boston St. Has anybody got him?

Today at noon a black cat came in our yard who I initially thought was Pepper. However, he had no collar, ran away from me, and kept running across the street when I tried to catch him. If I get the chance I want to investigate this cat in case he is a stray or, God forbid, something's gone wrong with Pepper. In any event, call if you see Pepper, thanks.

-EF

Oct 5 2011 -- Missing

Hello all

Pepper's behavior has become so regular that the blog has become very quiet, which we definitely see as a good thing!

Unfortunately it's been several days since we've seen him now. This is the first time in a while he's been awol so it's taken us some time to update the blog. Please keep an eye out for him and let us know if you see him.

Thank you!

Pepper Care Refresher

Hello, everyone

I am re-posting the basics of Pepper care, because it seems he's been doing a lot of visiting. We'd like to hear about visits more often, especially from people who choose to allow him in and / or to feed him. He's been absent from our house for several days and we were getting worried. Turns out, many have seen him and he's fine.

Thanks all!

-EF

Pepper Care

If you see Pepper out & about, please consider adding a blog post or a comment to let us know. If Pepper comes to visit and you'd like to let him stick around, please let us know that. Just please bear in mind the following:

* If you need to call us please do so between 6am and 10pm. If it's the middle of the night and you don't want to keep him, just put him out! Exceptions are

1) if he seems hurt (ravenously hungry doesn't qualify)

2) if the weather is terrible, or

3) if he's flirting with crossing a busy street (McGrath, Somerville Ave, Washington St, Bow St).

In those instances you can call anytime.

* If you find him off of Prospect Hill (meaning on the wrong side of Union Sq, the McGrath Hwy, Vinal, Highland, Summer, or Washington) please call us or bring him home.

* If Pepper is Visiting You PLEASE DON'T FEED HIM unless you plan to host him on a regular basis over the winter. He needs to learn where the consistent source(s) of food is(are).

* We don't mind him having extended visits (like a couple/3 days) in homes that enjoy having him around... he is a really fun cat! But, of course you'll need to have a litter box and all. Moreover, even if you had a hard time keeping him out of the house, after about 24 hours you'll have a harder time keeping him in!

Thanks, here's to successful community pet management!

-Eric F

Spring update

OK, technically Spring is still eight days away, but who's counting? Our goals over the winter with Pepper have gone pretty well. He did spend many a cold night indoors. Usually he'd take at least one foray out of the house per day, but generally that was before bed and wouldn't last long. As it's gotten warmer, he has gotten in the habit of going out in the afternoon or evening then reappearing at our door between 7 and 9 in the morning, coming in, eating, and sleeping the rest of the day. Perfectly normal cat behavior! We've gotten only three or four calls or e-mails about him over the past month, and two of those were from people who were already familiar with him and just wanted to check in. So overall, keeping him has gotten to be much lower maintenance!

Friday morning he did not appear and was missing until Saturday afternoon when animal control showed up at our door with him, sans collar! They identified him with the subdermal chip. So, thanks to whoever found him and called animal control. We've got new tags on order and will start letting him out again as soon as they're on.

By the way if you find his collar, please give us a shout, it would be nice to have it back. Thanks!

-EF

Contact Info!

We never put our phone number on this blog yet, because it's on the getmehome.com website. Well, we're divorcing this blog from getmehome because their server goes down quite frequently so it is not a good link from Pepper himself to his blog. We've got a custom tag on order that will tell you to go straight to this site. Anyhow, our contact info:

FIRST PLEASE READ THE PEPPER CARE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU CALL

617-718-0936  or
802-859-0859

If you want to bring him home he lives at 12 Prospect Hill Ave.

Thanks!

Pictures of Pepper

 Per request, here is what Pepper looks like...

 ...being held against his will...

... and cuddling with Zach,

Pepper Care Refresher

Pepper Care

If you see Pepper out & about, please consider adding a blog post or a comment to let us know. If Pepper comes to visit and you'd like to let him stick around, please let us know that. Just please bear in mind the following:

* If you need to call us please do so between 6am and 10pm. If it's the middle of the night and you don't want to keep him, just put him out! Exceptions are

1) if he seems hurt (ravenously hungry doesn't qualify)

2) if the weather is terrible, or

3) if he's flirting with crossing a busy street (McGrath, Somerville Ave, Washington St, Bow St).

In those instances you can call anytime.

* If you find him off of Prospect Hill (meaning on the wrong side of Union Sq, the McGrath Hwy, Vinal, Highland, Summer, or Washington) please call us or bring him home.

* If Pepper is Visiting You PLEASE DON'T FEED HIM unless you plan to host him on a regular basis over the winter. He needs to learn where the consistent source(s) of food is(are).

* We don't mind him having extended visits (like a couple/3 days) in homes that enjoy having him around... he is a really fun cat! But, of course you'll need to have a litter box and all. Moreover, even if you had a hard time keeping him out of the house, after about 24 hours you'll have a harder time keeping him in!

Thanks, here's to successful community pet management!

-Eric F

Status Christmas: Missing!

Pepper went out on the afternoon of the 21st and hasn't been seen since. To our surprise no one has found him and called. With all of the holiday planning and such we didn't get round to blogging until today, Christmas Eve. We are hoping someone has found him and taken him in, and will get round to contacting us eventually. If you have news of him please get in touch. We are out of town until Monday the 27th so please call on the cell phone, 802 859-0859.

Happy holidays, please wish for Pepper's safe return.

Status, Sat, 11/27

So... Pepper's status is out, and not seen since last night (Friday) at around 9.  He was tearing around near our place, shooting up trees and along fencetops, looking like he was going to burn out pretty quickly. But then didn't come in when called several times around 11. Not too worried about him but it has been quite chilly today, so please call anytime you find him.

On the whole, Pepper has actually been very good of late. We haven't gotten a single call to come fetch him for 10 days, and he's consistently come in on his own during that time. So, it seems like he's starting to get it about living someplace.

He has learned a new trick, though, which is jumping into cars. We haven't seen or heard of him trying to get into anyone else's, but a couple of times now he's jumped into our car as soon as we've returned from someplace. Hopefully he won't get himself driven to Pennsylvania or anything like that here at the end of the holiday weekend.

Anyway... it is cold out, so give us a call even if you find him in the middle of the night. Thanks!

-EF

Status 11/17 - 11/18: Out

Pepper went out at 5:30 on Wednesday (11/17) as I left home for a meeting in Union Square. He started following me but then got interested in something and turned back down toward the house. It's pretty windy out there, and cold with the wind chill. I'm not worried that he'll freeze, but the weather is iffy enough, if you feel like we ought to come get him at 2am or whenever, go ahead and call.

Status, 11/16

Pepper is back out as of 8:30 this morning. Haven't heard anything of him so far today. Looks like it'll be a great night for cats though. Lows in thr upper 40s, no rain, and plenty of increasingly desperate rodents to stalk! Unless you find him hurt or away from Prospect Hill, just let him be!

Status, 11/15: Home

Hey, thanks Alex for your comment! It was great to see this tool work as intended.

Several hours after your post (like, 2am) Pepper showed up on a back porch on Thorpe Street (not a long walk for a cat who can cut through private property at will) and introduced himself to some guys who were very concerned about him, and called the number on the yellow tag without first checking the website on the blue tag. So we got a call at 2:30 from a guy who insisted that we needed to come pick him up right away. So that's what we did. He's been home since then, but he will be out and about again soon.

As a result of this incident I've taken the yellow tag off of him. He's still got the weblink tag, and the Union Square Vet Clinic tag as backup. They're not around to call use at 2:30 in the morning, so hopefully that will work better.

Let me clarify, I don't mind coming to get Pepper in the wee hours if it's necessary. But, a perfectly healthy cat on a nice night not too far from home... cats are nocturnal, after all... he'll be fine! (Dissenters, please comment.) I'd love it if Pepper came home again after going out, and that's the behavior we're trying to engender but so far, if he goes out at all, he comes back only after someone calls to tell us where he is. And he will be an unhappy animal if he is kept in.

Anyhow, as though he could tell what I was doing, Pepper has just climbed into Austin's vibrating infant's chair and started to settle in. Guess he wants everyone to know how much he loves this chair, uses it more than Austin does, I think.

Status, 11/11/10

As of midnight on 11/11 - 11/12, Pepper is out. His last known position was Warren St, about 24 hours ago, where he charged into the home of a woman having a cigarette on her back porch, and negotiated himself a plate of tuna. Those folks called us at midnight and said he seemed really hungry. We explained that he's just a little beggar (!!) and they said they would turn him out.