I am a rural non-gun owner

[LWolf]

38. When I bought my current place,

there was a large colony of feral cats living in and around the barn. The current owner fed them there. I spent a summer trapping, spaying, neutering, and releasing. I also, as I cleaned up the place, and found mummified cat remains in several places. By the time I was done, the cat population was already declining. Apparently she let them breed because their lives were so short, snapped up by owls and coyotes. By the end of the first year, they were gone and the pack rats and bunnies were taking over.

I'm not going to encourage feral cats to proliferate. Nothing else seems to keep the rodents under control, though. I keep my cat indoors here; they just get taken too easily. I've considered keeping "barn cats," feral cats that have been caught and spayed. The local spay and neuter clinic always has some available. I just don't feel right knowing I'd have to replace them every year as the predators took them.

I've got hawks and owls; they don't make a dent in the rodent population.