If Will Ferrell made a movie about someone like Amy Fanning, he’d make millions of dollars. Amy Fanning could play herself and earn some work-study funds.

She is one of two people who currently serve as Paws, the Northeastern mascot that walks around the crowds at sporting and campus events to spread the Northeastern spirit (the other goes to hockey games, and can ice skate). You might run into her at a home basketball game, or you may have met her at one of the football games at Parsons field.

Fanning started spreading Husky spirit at the beginning of the fall semester. She said she heard about the job from a friend involved in the Husky Athletic Club.

“I just walk around the crowd during games, being friendly,” she said.

It’s not easy being Paws though. The costume is ancient, Fanning said, and she can only see through the costume’s mouth.

“It’s really hot and it’s old, so it doesn’t smell that great,” Fanning said.

She said she has an escort to guide her around, making sure she doesn’t trip, fall or get hassled by fans. She poses for pictures, gets the crowd to cheer and does pretty much everything to get Husky fans fired up, she said. But one thing she doesn’t do is talk. Instead she gestures and nods to show what Paws is thinking and feeling.

Fanning said she has had a few unusual experiences as Paws. When one person realized that Paws was actually a girl, someone pinched the costume’s butt. And an encounter with a foreign exchange student won’t be leaving her mind any time soon.

“At the last basketball game, there was an exchange student from Sweden, and he told me that in Sweden they had no use for mascots, so they would have killed me,” she said.

She’s also appeared at some major on-campus events, like the tree lighting ceremony held in late-November at Krentzman Quadrangle.

Being Paws has increased her school spirit, Fanning said. Before taking the mascot job, she’d only go to sporting events occasionally. Today, she attends regularly, and has managed to get a lot of her friends to start going as well.

“Some of them think it’s pretty funny that I’m Paws. Some come to the games too,” she said.

When Fanning is not channeling Paws, she is a psychology major who will be graduating in May. She works part-time at the Russell J. Call Children’s Center, the day care center attached to White Hall. She also works at a physical therapy clinic in Downtown Crossing.