Edmonds "Frog Lady" Thayer Cueter is Friend to All Amphibians

ASIDE FROM wall-to-wall frog memorabilia, the first thing to greet you at Edmonds' is Smoochy, a 3-year-old female rescue pug from Arizona. She’s a loyal sidekick to the store’s owner, Thayer Cueter, and a happy greeter to all customers. And while she isn’t a frog, Smoochy does have a frog costume she recently donned for Halloween. 

“Smochy has all kinds of costumes,” Cueter said with a laugh, displaying Smoochy’s Christmas antlers. The pug looked back from where she sat on the floor looking up at a TV screen playing The Muppets Christmas Carol. “She gets really excited and barks at the dogs.”

Smoochy may charm customers with her personality and her tricks (she will dance for treats), but what really draws people in is curiosity surrounding the Frog Shop.

A staple in Edmonds for the past 15 years, and formerly located in the heart of town on Main Street, the Just Frogs & Friends Amphibian Center moved west to Admiral way three years ago. Cueter, who also works at Avian Exotic Animal Medical Center in Kirkland, had been keeping an eye on the spot and jumped at the chance to rent it when it became available.

The shop is a combination amphibian educational center and store, but all proceeds from any sales go to support the Just Frogs, Toads Too Foundation. It's a nonprofit organization Cueter founded to about the importance of frogs, toads and turtles, as well as the risk they face due to various factors.

“Everybody in here has been dropped off needing a home,” she said gesturing to clusters of large aquariums lining the walls and on the floor. Each one contains one or two homeless creatures. “Everybody is a rescue mission. Because of the economy, we doubled in number this year.”

Cueter explained that as people lose jobs, face foreclosure and are forced to relocate to apartments, pets often get given away or left behind. Most of the 22 animals she has at the center were left at the doorstep, and the Frog Lady refuses to leave any animal out in the cold.

People often wonder why the animals can’t be released in a pond or park. 

“A lot of them are not local beings,” Cueter said. “If they are local they will go back out, but a lot of the store-bought ones aren’t local.” 

Even though there are plenty of frogs and turtles who need homes, Cueter doesn’t just let anyone adopt them. Each prospective adoptive family or individual must take an amphibian care and education class, and if they decide they actually don’t want the animal after that, Cueter will refund the full adoption fee and take the pet back. She says it is a win-win for the animals, and that is the most important thing.

Cueter has always been interested in frogs. She was born on St. Patrick’s Day, and that day's association with the color green was what started her frog memorabilia collection. She’s now earned a Guinness Book record for the collection, which consists of more than 10,000 collectibles. 

“I grew up wanting to take care of the forgotten few,” she said, “so I was volunteering and working in a vet clinic as early as sixth-grade. We always had lots of pets when I was younger, and my mom and I were always saving neighborhood animals.”

Aside from classes, Just Frogs offers birthday parties as well as the chance to sponsor animals. Because it is so time consuming and expensive to take care of so many animals, Cueter offers people the opportunity to help out by the donating money for the upkeep of an animal each month. And for as long as frogs, toads and turtles need home, she will continue taking them. 

“I always knew I would open a frog shop,” Cueter said. “Froggy used to be my nickname, and then I graduated to the Frog Lady. I grew up with them, and I always wanted to help animals. Frogs were my passion because they are what I call the ‘forgotten few.’ If you don’t leave this place smiling, there’s something wrong.”

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For more information visit the Just Frogs Web site or Facebook Page, or stop by the store, which is located at 300 Admiral Way, Ste. 104. The stores has limited hours, so call beforehand to make sure someone will be there. The number is 425-778-8726.