Young Bella Vistan runs Cat Club, helps felines
A young feline aficionado in Bella Vista has spent the past four years building a club to help her fuzzy friends.
Cora Hardin, 10, is the energetic, smiling president of the slightly informal Cat Club, which includes classmates, family members and a handful of others and works to help cats and educate pet owners, as well as raising funds.
“I really love cats, and I thought that I should do something for them,” she said. “We take donations and we donate to local shelters and Turpentine Creek.”
She also helps people who have rescued kittens, she said, and gives advice whenever possible — on top of sharing whatever information she can. One thing cat owners should consider, she said, is that a cat’s health can be affected by its diet and its treatment — a cat getting quality food in a low-stress environment, for instance, will be far healthier.
A few facts Hardin recited off the top of her head include a group of cats being called a clowder and cats having more than 20 muscles in their ears.
Hardin shares information and images on her website, cat-club.info, which also contains a link to the club’s Facebook page.
Of course, she has her own cat, a Russian blue named Bo, which is short for “Brave One.”
Her mother, Lindsey Hardin, explained that Cora, three years old at the time, was feeding a litter of kittens outside, but Bo was the only one who ended up approaching the family.
“She rescued him in the backyard,” Lindsey Hardin said. “She’s been a cat whisperer for a long time.”
At school, she said, her daughter will make friends and recruit them into the club.
The young girl does not focus on numbers or anything else, she said, but is instead happy to focus on helping the community — something Lindsey Hardin said more adult clubs could learn from.
Cora Hardin doesn’t really keep track of how much money she raises, collecting cash in jars and donating as they fill up, but her mother estimated she has raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 to $500 since starting the club.
It’s no surprise that she’s stuck with it, Lindsey Hardin said.
“She’s always had a heart of gold,” she said. “I’m super proud of her; she’s always tenacious.”