We receive several calls a week about cats who have gone missing, and concerned owners are naturally upset about their beloved pets’ absence and often think the worst.

We always advise an owner not to give up hope and to keep checking with neighbours in case their cat has been accidentally trapped in a garage or outbuilding.

We also advise worried owners to contact their local veterinary practices and pet shops, just in case their customers have mentioned a stray cat to them.

As intelligent as they are, cats cannot recognise their names in the same way that dogs can, and so developing a particular way of calling out to your cat, or saying their name in a particular tone of voice, is well worth doing.

This is useful when you’re trying to locate your feline because they will often meow back to you.

We place details of missing cats on our ’Lost and Found Pets’ Facebook page, and social media is often a really good way track down a lost animal. But the best thing you can do to keep your dog or cat safe is to have him or her microchipped.

We will be running dog microchipping days in the spring, but if you would like the ManxSPCA to microchip your cat simply call the cattery (851672, option 2) and leave a message if a member of the team can’t come to the phone straight away.

They will call you back and arrange a suitable time for you to bring your cat to Ard Jerkyll so that they can have this quick and painless procedure - all we ask for is a minimum donation of £15.

If a stray cat is brought to Ard Jerkyll and we can’t trace his or her owner either through a microchip or by using social media, we will keep them in our quarantine unit for two weeks in the hope that an owner contacts us. After two weeks, if the cat is in good health, he or she will be neutered or spayed and then moved to our main cattery for adoption.

We have several unclaimed stray cats with us at the moment, looking for new homes.

Chicago is a real beauty, but we can only guess that her age is about three given we don’t know anything about her background.

She is friendly and enjoys being cuddled, but she’s also happy in her own company, and she’s not too keen on other cats.

We think she would be happiest as the only cat in a household.

On the other hand Jaq, a stunning tabby, would benefit from being rehomed with other cats because she seems to enjoy being with feline friends.

She’s still very shy around humans and so her new owner will need to be patient and spend lots of time getting to know and reassure her.

We think she’s very young, possibly just 12 months old, and so she has a long life ahead of her as someone’s companion - she’ll more than repay the effort an owner puts into gaining her trust.

As well as being neutered and spayed all of our cats are microchipped, wormed, treated for fleas and vaccinated, and so the adoption fee of £50 represents amazing value for money.

New owners are also provided with a month’s free pet insurance for them to continue with, or not, as they see fit and the cattery team are readily available to give post-adoption advice and support.