MASSACHUSETTS– Charlotte Clancy’s birthday wish list is pretty short this year because instead of goodies for her it involves cat food, and lots of it.
It may seem like an odd request. However, the feline-friendly 6-year-old has asked guests at her birthday party this weekend to bring canned and dry cat food instead of gifts for her so that she can donate it to Boston’s Forgotten Felines, a non-profit that feeds homeless cats and tries to find them homes.
Charlotte turns 7 officially in August but she’s celebrating early with her class from the Ralph Talbot Elementary School this weekend.
She explained she wanted to do something to help cats because they’re her favorite animal.
“They’re so snuggly,” she stated.
Charlotte’s mother Kristen Clancy said Charlotte suggested the cat food drive herself earlier in the spring, which was prompted partly by her adoption of Mittens, a formerly homeless Maine coon kitten, last year.
“She just said, ‘We need to do more for the cats,’” Clancy stated. “To have a child who wants to do something so selfless is pretty awesome.”
The gesture was especially meaningful to Clancy, who is the director of operations for Animal Rescue Konnection, an organization which helps find homes for dogs who have been abused, abandoned, neglected or unwanted.
“We talk a lot about kindness and compassion in our house and how we can be kind and compassionate not only to the people around us but to animals as well,” Clancy stated.
Mittens and Charlotte’s first cat, whose name is Snowball, are her constant companions, her mother went on to say. They wait for her at the door when she gets off the school bus and they hang out with her on the couch when she watches TV.
Charlotte and her classmates will be celebrating her birthday this weekend at the Cameo Theater in Columbian Square at a showing of “Finding Dory”.
