When a cat purrs you might think it is as simple as a human smiling or a dog wagging its tail, but it’s more complicated than that.

Cats don’t just purr when they’re happy but also when they’re afraid or distressed.

The vibrations act as a defence mechanism, a way to keep calm in stressful or dangerous situations, and they can also provide pain relief if a cat is sick or injured.

Purring not only helps sooth the cat, it also provides health benefits for the cat’s owner - research has shown that a person’s blood pressure is substantially lower after spending time interacting with a purring cat.

Besides purring there are thought to be about 16 sound patterns in a cat’s repertoire including meows, hisses and growls.

Adult cats only meow to humans and not to each other, possibly because cats can interact with fellow cats using more subtle forms of communication, such as an ear or tail twitch, or the blink of an eye.

Meowing to a human is often the best way for a cat to get what it wants, whether that’s food or access to a room, and it’s proof of how socially adept the species has become.

However, it can be very confusing for humans who can’t work out what a cat is asking for, and the ManxSPCA receives several calls a week about cats who have turned up at a neighbour’s back door and are meowing - are they in distress, are they hungry, are they lost, are they cold?

The answer in most cases is that the cat is simply being opportunistic!

And if the kind-hearted neighbour has given the cat some tuna or some chicken, the cat becomes even more persistent.

Unless the cat is in poor condition, or it looks sick or injured, our advice in these situations is not to feed him or her. The chances are he/she will return home before too long. However, if the cat’s health is a cause for concern then we recommend that he/she be taken to a vet, or brought to us here at Ard Jerkyll, for a microchip check and appropriate treatment.

When we can’t locate an owner, a stray cat will stay in our quarantine unit for two weeks. During this time the cattery staff will advertise the cat on the ManxSPCA’s ’lost and found pets’ Facebook page and make every effort to find an owner, but after that time the cat will then be made available for adoption.

We have a wide variety of cats and kittens in our cattery at the moment, although this year has been an unusual one in terms of kittens because we’ve rescued very few tiny ’bottle-feeders’.

Most of the kittens have arrived already weaned, and we now have several in the cattery waiting to be adopted.

Pinocchio and Dragon are four-month-old black and white boys; and then we have Ooky and Spooky (males - one black, one black and white) who are just a bit older at five months.

They are lovely kittens and although they are a little shy when they first meet people they will all make amazing pets.

Jake, Betty and Biba are ten-week-old litter mates but they are very different from each other in looks.

Biba is a black and white shorthair, whereas her siblings are tabby and white, and longhaired.

Jake is the more confident one and would be happy to be rehomed on his own, whereas Betty and Biba would be best rehomed together or paired with another cat to give them a confidence boost. Betty has a problem with a watery eye at the moment (she has one blue eye, and one green one) and we are monitoring this closely, and so she may have to stay at Ard Jerkyll a little while longer.

We don’t organise cat shows because they would be too stressful for most cats, but this weekend sees the return of our annual Fun Dog show on Sunday, September 16.

It will take place in the play barn, undercover, and registration opens at 12.30pm.

Classes include Waggiest Tail, Golden Oldie, Best Look-Alike and Prettiest Eyes and cost £1 to enter, and there are lots of rosettes and prizes to be won