Phil L muttered:

Thats better :-p
TBH I wouldn't mind seeing the odd cat in my garden, the bloody place is a
rodent's paradise, the side fence has started rotting away and on the other
side of it is a mass of brambles (I leave these in place to deter the other
type of rat)...only 150 yds away is a brook and several stagnant swampy
ponds, I'm sure they are coming from there but there seems to be an endless
supply of them...I've followed all the 'rules', no foodstuffs or hidey holes
but still they enter my garden in plagues...poison works for about a week,
traps are a waste of time as they learn too quickly to avoid them...they
seem to disappear in summer but for the rest of the year they swarm all over
the place, I think we need to introduce some snakes to this country,
genetically modified ones that breed like wildfire, are frost tollerant and
thrive on rats...it's definately got a lot worse in these past 2 - 3 years.

Get a ratting terrier, Jack Russell, Border ‹ any of them will do. The rats
will keep a wide berth.