The ManxSPCA’s cattery has rehomed more than 200 cats and kittens so far this year, but Apoc has been with us since March (that’s 185 days) and we simply don’t understand why - he’s a great cat, and so we thought he could write his own article this week.

Hello, my name is Apoc, and I’m an eight-year-old Manx tom cat. I’m proud to say that I am a full Manxie, with absolutely no sign of a tail!

I am a friendly boy and I enjoy chin rubs and strokes and rolling around, but I will let you know when I’ve had enough - cuddles must be on my terms.

I’ve been here a long time now and although I’m well fed, and I have lots of visitors who spend time with me, I would like a home and garden of my own (I love to sun bathe).

The lovely staff and volunteers call me ’a character’ and I think they have a soft spot for me, but I really don’t like other cats and I will need to be the only cat in my new house. I don’t think I will enjoy living with young children - they’re just too noisy and boisterous - and so I am looking for a quiet home with patient and understanding owners who will give me time to adjust to my new surroundings.

I have my boundaries and I need people to respect them.

I would like my next family to be the one I spend the rest of my life with. My first owner moved abroad and couldn’t take me with him; and my second owner moved house and, once again, I wasn’t allowed to go with him.

On the whole, though, I’ve been one of the lucky ones.

At least my previous owner brought me to the ManxSPCA and didn’t just turf me out and leave me to fend for myself. I’ve seen quite a few cats over the last few months who have clearly had owners and are very affectionate towards humans (speaking as a proud cat, I find it a bit embarrassing to see them craving attention so much), but they have come in as strays. No-one has been looking for them, and so after two weeks they move from the quarantine unit up to the main cattery for rehoming.

If they had been microchipped things may have been different.

I met a lovely tabby girl called Keri a few days ago. She had been living in a lady’s greenhouse and wasn’t showing any signs of leaving and so the lady asked the ManxSPCA to help. Luckily Keri was microchipped, and it turns out that she had been missing from her home for a whole year. Her owners were overjoyed to hear that she was safe and well, and she’s now back with her family.

And as for Domino, he had an even more extraordinary story to tell.

He has regularly sailed around the UK with his owners on a boat, and he’s always enjoyed his maritime adventures.

However, in August he disappeared from the marina in Peel, where the boat was berthed. His owners were distraught and they extended their holiday in the Isle of Man in the hope that he would turn up, but in the end they had to sail home without him, distraught. Last week Domino turned up in Patrick, where a kind lady realised that he was lost, and she brought him to us for a ’chip-check’.

In less than 10 minutes the cattery team were able to call his owners because their contact details were on the microchip company’s database.

Domino has now travelled back across the Irish Sea to his home in Derbyshire, safely contained in his carrier in the Mannanan’s ’pet lounge’ rather than roaming the decks as the ship’s cat. A microchip has made this possible.

Please make sure your cats are microchipped. It’s such a simple and painless procedure (I didn’t feel a thing!) and the cattery team here at Ard Jerkyll can do it for you for a minimum donation of just £150. Please call them on 851672, option two, and make an appointment.