For 23 years, Ohio University Bobcats and the residents of Athens have been congregating in the cozy atmosphere of Donkey Coffee. The coffeehouse, located at 17 W. Washington St., is frequently bustling with music and conversations, along with focused students clicking on keyboards.
In May 2025, co-owner Angie Pyle decided to introduce a new addition to her family and mascot for the coffee shop in the form of a saddle donkey named Sgt. Pepper.
Sgt. Pepper is currently nine months old. Pyle said he has a playful and affectionate personality, and he and her horse, Sadie, are the best of friends. Sgt. Pepper visited Donkey Coffee on a couple of occasions and said his demeanor was calm and curious when interacting with others.
“He is so unbelievably affectionate. He follows me around when I walk around with a wheelbarrow picking up manure … and kind of touches me with his nose to ask for attention and pets all the time,” Pyle said. “I can't believe how calm he is. I brought him up the other day to Donkey, and it was his first time being in front of the shop, interacting with people, and he was so calm. There were people on both sides of him, petting him and stuff. And he was just so okay with it.”
Pyle said Sadie needed a companion, and she thought it would be perfect to get a donkey not only to ride in a few years and enjoy the company of, but also serve as advertising for the coffee shop. She said it is possible for Sgt. Pepper to be a tax write-off in his advertising role for the business.
Pyle said she tries to walk Sgt. Pepper somewhere interesting every day to stimulate his curious mind.
“Last night, my husband's band was practicing in the basement, and so we went over to the basement door and peeked inside so that he could hear the music and see the instruments,” Pyle said. “And then a couple bandmates came out and greeted him.”
Pyle said Sgt. Pepper loves ear scratches, as well as a new adventure. Pyle said whenever Sgt. Pepper sees her and her husband, Donkey co-owner Chris Pyle, he is “gawking” at them, eagerly awaiting the next activity, as opposed to Sadie, who focuses on eating her hay.
Pyle also said she jokes that Sgt. Pepper is the head of marketing for Donkey and likes to find ways to market her coffee with him, doing photoshoots with him alongside their seasonal drinks.
John Douglas, an employee at Donkey Coffee, met Sgt. Pepper at Pyle’s barn to have a photoshoot to advertise Donkey’s cinnamon roll latte and cinnamon rolls. Douglas said they were able to get good content out of the shoot as Sgt. Pepper did his thing while enjoying a whipped cream treat.
The shoot took about two hours, but Douglas said it went by quickly, as attendees enjoyed hanging out with a donkey and finding ways for Sgt. Pepper to be more at ease.
“It's a weird sort of mix between he really does like the attention, but he's also very jumpy,” Douglas said. “He's very shy about it. He seemed to get more comfortable as we spent time with him.”
Douglas, who joined the team in August, said Sgt. Pepper’s addition to the Donkey community is a cool way to show off the shop.
“It's fun to watch him also have so much fun, like learning new things and meeting people,” Pyle said. “It's so fulfilling to just bless people with the opportunity to see him and pet him and interact with him and to watch their smiles and laughs.”
