Tavistock’s social media sensation Polo the cat is lending his name to a charity push.

The team behind the brand Polo the black cat, is hoping his popularity online and ‘face-to-whiskers’ among residents and businesses, will help raise funds for locals’ favourite charities.

Polo certainly has influence and was honoured with the mayoral title of honorary ‘catizen’, bestowed at a public ceremony in the Meadows park this summer.

He is popular because of his wanderings for sleepovers around shops, nightclubs, bars, hotels and the town hall and even for smuggling himself into cars undetected for trips and uninvited into wedding parties.

Sociable Polo is welcome everywhere and his movements are tracked on his own Facebook page which was created to give owners Hayley Clarke and son Reese reassurance that he is safe while spending most of his life away from his loving home.

A new gofundme charity giving page has been launched in Polo’s name and shared on his Facebook page – ‘The adventures of Sir Polo the Tavistock cat’. He even has a calendar planned, while a Polo autobiography is going on sale with proceeds to go to an as-yet-unnamed charity.

The gofundme page will initially be used to help raise money to cover the costs of producing calendars and books. A poll will be conducted on Polo’s Facebook page for followers to help choose charities to ultimately benefit.

Jen Horn, Polo’s publicist and family friend, said: “I know a lot of people know Sir Polo the Tavistock cat and have the honour of meeting him.

“We are looking for a little help from his fans to help us to raise money to help local charities on behalf of Sir Polo.

“We would love to produce more books and calendars and much more to sell and help raise money for our community. We are asking for a little help from anyone to be able to afford to do this.

“The money we use to pay for the cost of the books would be put back into the ‘kitty’ and any money raised above the cost of printing books would be given to chosen charities.

“The plan is to have an amount that we can use/reuse to buy items like the book and be able to give more to the local charities that you choose to support.”

She added: “There are a several well-known charities, but obviously there are more to consider that Polo’s followers might choose.

“A poll will be done on the page to allow a fair public vote of the followers. We have raised almost £100 already which will help us to be able to produce more Sir Polo merchandise to support local charities chosen by his fans.”

Jen thanked Mathew Smith, a young local lad who even donated his pocket money to help Polo’s appeal: “Mathew is a big supporter of the page and it was so kind of him to do so.”

The Sir Polo the Tavistock Cat gofundme site is here for donations: https://tinyurl.com/mry6dpr9