As we head towards the end of January, how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions?

The most common resolutions are to lose weight, to stop smoking and to take more exercise, but if you would like to try something different for 2020 then why not become a charity shop volunteer?

The ManxSPCA has two charity shops - one at 88 Buck’s Road in Douglas, and the other at 64 Parliament Street in Ramsey.

Both shops have loyal and committed teams of volunteers, who dedicate a morning or afternoon every week to help out.

While one person serves customers, the other will sort and steam clothes, or put price tags on items to be sold.

But the shops need more volunteers to ensure that they can open six days a week and make as much money as possible to support the ManxSPCA’s work.

The shop teams are friendly and supportive, and often find they have lots in common as well as a mutual passion for animals.

Buck’s Road has its own car parking spaces, too, which is a real bonus. If you would like to find out more about becoming a shop volunteer, please e-mail the ManxSPCA’s general manager on [email protected], or call her on 851672.

Because charity shops sell their products at low prices, it takes a great deal of time and effort to generate a profit of £1,000.

Imagine, then, how depressing it was to hear the news that £20,000 has been spent recently on legal fees by cat-lovers who live in London.

The reason for this insanity: a Maine Coon cat called Ozzy who decided that he liked spending time at a neighbour’s house rather than his own.

Seemingly, the neighbour encouraged Ozzy’s visits and even changed his collar, and it’s taken a legal wrangle for the owners reach an agreement whereby the neighbour will desist from doing these things.

While this case is unusual because of the eye-watering sum of money involved, the problem of cats wandering is a common one.

Lewis Carroll’s famous quote ’Cats choose us; we don’t own them’ often comes to mind when we speak to people about their missing cats, or about cats who appear on people’s doorsteps looking lost and hungry (which, in 99% of cases, they’re not!).

For all their apparent lack of loyalty, and their ability to travel large distances in just one night, cats generally return to their principal home, even if they stop off at a few other homes along the way.

Sadly, a little black cat called Rain didn’t manage to find her way home, and she came to us as a stray from the Onchan area just before Christmas.

We think she’s middle aged, and so about eight years old, and she’s in good health.

She is very friendly and affectionate and clearly adores humans, but she’s a bit reticent about other cats.

As we often say in these articles, everyone needs a lucky black cat in their lives, and a house is not a home without a feline in it.

Along with all the cats in our cattery, Rain is microchipped and so should she wander off in the future her owner’s details will be easy to identify.

The cattery team are happy to microchip non-ManxSPCA cats for a small donation - just call them on 851672, option two, and leave a message if there’s no-one available to answer the phone straight away. All the island’s vets provide microchipping services too.

Microchipping your cat really is the best way to ensure he or she is returned to you if they wander off too far, and it’s a quick and painless procedure to insert a tiny microchip just underneath a cat’s skin.

If you keep meaning to get around to having you cat chipped, but haven’t yet done so, then maybe this could be a New Year’s resolution that you can easily keep.