Our problem was that our dog chased the Farrell cats out of our yard so the Vole population increased causing damage to our lawn, garden and barnyard. We like cats but mostly because they like voles! We tried capturing a Ferrell kitten and tried to domesticate her - that didn't work - her instincts were not trainable.

We solved the problem by getting a female kitten (Muffy) from a neighbor and raised and trained her for our needs. We feed her and she has a winter heated house on an elevated platform (about 5' high) out under our shed so dogs etc can't eat her food and she is not allowed in the house (water sprayed in her face upon attempted entry cured that), introduced her to our dog and trained our dog to get along with her and not chase her (we have an Aussie and one scolding was all it took)! They are pals now. Our cat does not bother the garden or poop in our raised beds - it must be that there is plenty of space in the field for that?

Problem solved - our dog keeps the Farrell/neighbor cats (she still loves to chase away Farrell/neighbor cats) off the place and our cat tries to keep the voles under control. We need another cat or two though because we have a large yard and one cat isn't enough. We let her have a litter before we get her neutered so we can train another cat or two. This dog & cat combination is working great for us and the grandkids love to come see the kittens - we won't have any problem giving away this litter after we keep the kittens we want!!

Getting old does, however, alas.