Ya know, I don't get it. Maybe cats are good for some people but farmers have kept terriers for rats WAY more than cat for a long time now. Cats are for mice, chipmunks, and ground nesting birds. MAYBE rabbits. Maybe.
We have a TON of semi-feral and outdoor cats here. I've gotten to know their faces. And NONE of them hunted the rats sufficiently. They did try attacking my chicks one time - that hasn't happened since I got a rooster.... And none of the cats I had growing up ever hunted rats either. They would hunt anything but. Literally anything but rats. Crows, bluejays, rabbits, other cats, even dogs and they'd pick a fight. But they'd walk right past rats and pretend not to notice them.