Adopting a puppy has opened the entrepreneurial door for a resourceful and enterprising 11-year-old Mount Maunganui student.

Flo Scrivener has not only raised $300 for the RRR animal rescue charity through her crafty design ideas, but she and younger sister Mabel, 8, now have a new furry family member.

Their father Marcel Scrivener says the family recently fostered two puppies from a litter of 10 that was dropped at RRR. Named ‘Ebony' and ‘Alfie', they were two weeks old when they arrived last September. 'The plan was to just keep them for a few weeks over the school holidays.”

Flo and Mabel bottle -fed the two puppies, including getting up to feed them in the middle of the night.

'Then we decided to keep ‘Ebony'. We wanted to keep both for a while but decided that one was the right choice.”

Now eight months old, the puppy has given the family a huge lot of joy.

'We found a really good home for ‘Alfie' in Pyes Pa with four girls. We have met up with them on a play date and ‘Alfie' is doing really well.”

During the last eight months, Flo has raised money for RRR by selling crafts and jams at local markets. Recently surpassing her goal of raising $250, she's planning to hand the money over in person soon.

'I realised RRR didn't have as much money as other rescue centres and they get other animals dropped in all the time,” says Flo.

She was already making epoxy resin jewellery and items out of polymer clay. From there she had the idea to sell them at a market.

For about six weekends, Flo has been at the Freedom Market at Faith Bible College Welcome Bay. She's also had a stall at the Tauranga Farmer's Market Kids' Market, which is generally held the first Saturday of each month.

Flo says the highlights of the last few months are 'definitely getting ‘Ebony' and also getting my goal”. 'And also when people say ‘Well done'. I'm happy with that.”

She has further ideas, expanding on her original range. 'I was thinking of making things like macramé, improve my jewellery skills and be able to invest back into supplies.

'We want ‘Ebony' to do agility classes in the future. She goes down to the beach twice-a-day and meets other dogs. It's a great way to meet the community with dogs, and it encourages us to exercise.”