Wanted: A new home for Peep

LOGAN — Easter may have passed, but there’s still a Peep out there looking for a home.

No, this refers to not to the popular holiday marshmallow, but instead to a sweet little black and white-spotted lady with four paws and one of the cutest meows you’ll ever hear. Peep, you guessed it, is a cat in need of a forever family, said Stephanie Rigsby, manager of Grandma Faye’s grocery and feral cat-saver on the side.

Rigsby is the daughter of the late Sherry Seymour, profiled in The Logan Daily News after her death in 2009 for her generosity and in particular, her propensity for rescuing cats.

“She was a regular,” recalled Kim Griffith, at the time the board president of The Pet Orphanage in Logan. “One of the things that made her so special is that she spent a lot of her own resources and own time to get them spayed and neutered.”

In the decade-plus since, Rigsby has carried on her mother’s legacy, helping dozens of cats find homes with responsible owners. At her farm on Thompson-Ridge Road, she has quite a few barn cats, which she live traps around her property and Grandma Faye’s. She then, on her own dime, gets them spayed and vaccinated.

“If you’re just feeding them and not getting them any vet care or getting them fixed, you’re just making the problem worse. You’re creating more suffering, which I do not want to see,” Rigsby told The Logan Daily News.

Lovely Peep is one of four cats that she inherited from a neighboring property, after its elderly owner passed away. Two have been adopted out, and one unfortunately had to be euthanized due to illness. That leaves Peep, “the most feral cat of the bunch when we got her, just as a kitten,” according to Rigsby.

She began very shy and prone to hiding, but has since come out of her shell, “sweet as pie.”

“Since she warmed up to me, after I kept feeding her, she’d first let me pet her, and now she’ll just kind of melt into my arms. She also loves to play,” she said.

Whenever Rigsby traps a cat and has it taken care of at the vet, she has a decision, based on its behavior: whether to keep them with her other barn cats, to re-release them if they are too feral, or to find them a new home.

In Peep’s case, it is a dilemma. She has adjusted to behave well domestically, but doesn’t get along with the family’s other barn cats. It’s also getting a little crowded at the farm on Thompson-Ridge, between the cats, several dogs, and eight pet cows. “And they certainly aren’t going anywhere,” Rigsby said of the cattle.

For anyone interested in adopting Peep, they can call Grandma Faye’s grocery at 740-385-9466, or email stephanie@ohiocabin.org.

Rigsby wants anyone interested to know, though, that she won’t give away her cats to anyone who just likes the idea of it. They need to have a veterinarian’s reference, to make sure that Peep isn’t just loved, but taken care of medically upon her adoption.

“Usually, that’s where the conversation stops,” she said.

Peep may be quite shy at first, and Risgby said that she isn’t sure how the lass will interact with other domestic animals. Nonetheless, look at that face! Doesn’t she just make your heart melt!

Email at rmorris@logandaily.com