Happy birthday, Sgt. Pepper

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

When Janice Simeone adopted a barn cat from a neighbor in 1996, she also became the owner of that cat’s four kittens. More incredible than the unexpected adoption of five cats was something Simeone would have never guessed: one of the kittens she kept, Sgt. Pepper, would live to see her 26th birthday.

“Someone asked me, ‘Well, how do you really know how old she is?’ and I said, ‘Because I was there,’” Simeone told the Reader, seated on the front steps of her west Sandpoint home while Sgt. Pepper, 26 years and two weeks old, rose from her cat bed and stood on the sidewalk before me, inspecting.

Sgt. Pepper enjoys a break in the rain outside her home of 26 years in Sandpoint. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

“That was May 25, 1996, right here in the house,” Simeone said with a gesture toward the front door, recalling the day the kittens were born.

Only three months and two weeks earlier, this reporter was also born in Sandpoint — less than two miles away in Bonner General Hospital. Face to face with Sgt. Pepper, I couldn’t keep the wonder off my face.

“I know,” Simeone offered with a laugh, partly at my facial expression and partly in mutual amazement.

Sgt. Pepper licked gravy from a food can, unphased by her incredible life. Bored with us, she abandoned her food, bed and mother to walk around the house and back inside.

“I guess after 26 years, she knows her way around,” Simeone said, watching as Sgt. Pepper disappeared around the corner.

In Simeone’s words, Sgt. Pepper can “take care of herself” — a phrase that remains mostly true even in her extreme old age. Aside from the soft-boiled egg yolks for dinner and the occasional “tending to” that older cats require, Sgt. Pepper remains fiercely independent — a “great huntress” in her prime, Simeone said, and audacious enough to move in with the neighbors for several years before returning home this past winter without announcing herself.

Simeone’s husband observed her homecoming from the kitchen window.

“He looked over at me and said, ‘Sgt. Pepper just walked by’ and I said, ‘No she did not. She did not walk by,’” Simeone recalled.

Sure enough, she was back.

Simeone said she is a lifelong pet lover, and now dedicates herself to “chipping in” with local dog rescue efforts, offering transportation and sometimes fostering pups in need of homes.

“I’ve always, ever since I was little, had dogs and cats and that sort of thing,” she said. “I just love them.”

Simeone said that Sgt. Pepper is the oldest cat she’s ever had — or even heard of, for that matter. Of Sgt. Pepper’s siblings, Simeone also kept Oscar, who lived to be 19 years and five months old. The other two kittens went to Simeone’s friend, Tina. One of them died very young, while the other — Twinkie — lived to be 22.

“I really don’t know what the secret is,” Simeone said. “I think it’s just good genes. It must be.” 

As for Sgt. Pepper, she has proven to be the maker of her own destiny in many ways.

“She’s a North Idaho cat, man,” Simeone said with a laugh. “She’s a strong girl. She’s just a hardcore little cat.”