She’s eight years old and already Annabelle Howdy has proven herself to be a cutthroat businesswoman with a heart full of compassion for our animal friends.

Thursday, Annabelle delivered $30 to the Betsy Bailey Nelson Animal Control Facility. It was her donation to the shelter — money she had raised on her own, solely so she could donate it to help shelter animals.

“I just wanted to think about the animals,” Annabelle said, adding that she made the donation so “They (animal control officials) can combine it with the other money and expand it and get more cages.”

Annabelle said she loves animals “a lot” and has a Boxer puppy named Ariel and three hermit crabs at home. More surprising than Annabelle’s love of animals, and even her donation to help those in the shelter, was that she conceived her business plan of selling watercolor paintings to passersby in her Cypress Landing neighborhood, set up shop selling them for “$1 or 50 cents,” as her sign proclaimed, and set about raising money for local animals. According to Annabelle’s mother, Summer Howdy, she did it all on her own.

“We had nothing to do with it,” Summer Howdy laughed. “We thought she was raising money for herself.”

When Annabelle realized her paintings weren’t getting enough drive-by exposure in front of the Howdy’s house, she promptly moved her artwork to the corner of Potomac and Appomattox drives, two of the busier streets, for better visibility, said Trey Howdy, Annabelle’s father.

During Beaufort County Animal Control’s volunteer appreciation luncheon Thursday, Annabelle presented the money she’d raised to shelter staff and Dr. Marty Poffenberger, president of the Humane Society of Beaufort County. Poffenberger told the assembled crowd that Annabelle’s donation was encouraging, as the second grader at Chocowinity Primary School represented the future of volunteerism at the shelter.

To that end, Annabelle’s parents say her fundraising plans are far from over: her next entrepreneurial idea is to set up a dog-washing station in the Howdy’s front yard and give away cookies and lemonade to the waiting dog owners. And the moneymaking ideas just keep coming, Summer Howdy said.

“She’s definitely going to be something,” she laughed.