Dr. Allen Henderson, assistant professor of education, adopted a stray kitten in fall 2019 after Kari Aziamov, administrative assistant to the dean of education, found him in the Thornton Education Center parking lot. Aziamov gave the animal to Henderson because his family had previous experience raising kittens. The kitten, named Charles, attended many of Henderson's classes for five weeks because he required hourly care. "I walked into a faculty meeting, and they kind of gave Charles to me," Henderson said. "I have a daughter that has a cat that had kittens, and they thought her cat would take care of Charles, but that didn't work out, so he's at our house." Henderson took Charles to his morning classes, unable to leave him home alone at such a young age. Henderson's daughter, junior Asher Henderson, and her roommate, junior Anna Little, took care of the kitten in the evenings. Charles' eyes and ears were closed when he was found, and he needed to be bottle-fed every two hours. "The first thing I thought was, 'Is it a cat?'" Asher Henderson said. "If you had told me it was an opossum, I would've believed that." Allen Henderson said when he had students with allergy concerns, he left Charles in his office. Senior Meliny Pond said Charles was not really a distraction in class because Allen Henderson only showed him to students before and after his lectures. Little helped care for Charles after her roommate introduced them. Little said she took Charles to several of her classes, Starbucks, tailgates and Relay for Life while looking after him. Little said students recognized Charles on the Harding campus and approached her to say hello to him. "Students [and] kids react with sheer joy," Little said. "Some of them shed a few tears whenever they see him, and they asked to hold him. And professors usually are a little more muted, but they also love cats, and they're like, 'Gosh, can I hold him?' I was just talking to Dr. Gutierrez, and he played in her office for a long time, and she got out toys for him." Little said she would love to see Harding offer assistance to stray animals. Little and Asher Henderson started an Instagram account for Charles to keep students updated on his life. Pond said she thought faculty adopting stray animals was great. "I think he is just one of us, because he was found on campus," Pond said. "And professors are taking care of him, and he gets to come to class." story by Audrey Jackson leadership 213
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