The society will help any animal in need of care, and whilst it is most commonly associated with domestic animals and wildlife it also looks after what might be classed as ’farm animals’ from time to time.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture works closely with farmers to maintain welfare standards on the Island but sometimes sheep, pigs and goats are held in private collections and are more difficult to monitor.

The two handsome Loaghtans, pictured, were gifted into us last week by a private owner who liked the thought of owning this old Manx breed but who did not have suitable land to accommodate them.

Poor pasture meant that they were very thin when they arrived at Ard Jerkyll, but the breed is a hardy one and the two young males are eating well and gaining body condition.

The Loaghtan is classed as a ’small primitive sheep’, and it is one of the rare breeds of sheep on the watch list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Loaghtans grazed the hills of the Isle of Man until the 18th century but by the 1950s numbers had declined to a handful. As a result of the work of enthusiasts numbers have steadily increased over the last 60 years.

Originally most of the sheep were white, however there were also many grey, some black and a few were the Loaghtan colour we see today.

Loaghtan is the Manx word for the brown colour of the fleece and it is derived from two Manx words ’lugh’ meaning mouse and ’dhoan’ meaning brown, or from ’lhosht dhoan’ meaning burnt brown.

Clothing made from this colour of wool was highly prized and, as the numbers of sheep declined, breeders selectively bred the colour into the breed and this is why the rich brown is the only colour, with variations in shade depth, that survives today.

Our two Loaghtan boys have a potential new owner coming to see them soon, a lady who had a 14-year-old sheep that died recently and she needs a companion for her remaining sheep.

Let’s hope our two have such a long and happy life ahead of them.

A long and happy life is what we wish for all our animals, but sometimes we need to find homes for animals in the latter half of their lives. Holly and Molly are very sweet natured cats who were gifted in to us because their owner developed allergies.

They are 12-year-old pure black sisters, and although they are a little timid they are very well socialised. They are used to children and so would make the purrfect addition to a family home.

A little black rabbit, called Jet, has recently arrived in the small animals unit as a result of sad circumstances.

Her partner died and she struggled to cope with life as a single rabbit, but because she is not spayed (and her age means it would be too risky for her to have the operation now) she will need to be rehomed with a neutered male or another female.

She is very pretty, with big brown eyes, and she is the friendliest of creatures.

Please speak to the small animals team if you would like more information about her and the help you would receive with rabbit bonding.

All animals need to play and we have a kind volunteer who wants to make enrichment toys for our animals using the cardboard inner tubes from kitchen and toilet rolls.

If you are able collect and then drop off any of these at Ard Jerkyll please do so, and we will pass them on to our volunteer.