NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Peggy Eagan, 89, has quite a pedigree.

Her family members are the principals behind the local Leitz-Eagan Funeral Homes and the Eagan Insurance Agency, and her late husband, Frederick Leitz Eagan, was a Louisiana State Senator serving Orleans Parish from 1960 - 1980.

Eagan said her Uptown New Orleans home once housed a menagerie of pets including dogs, cats and a canary. Now, a resident at the Christwood Retirement Community in Covington, Louisiana, Eagan said her independent living apartment is almost purrrfect.

"I'd love the chance to get a cat because it helps the lonelin...