Inspector Kevin Lunn, Sergeant John Parry and the police station's janitor John Shawcross didn't paws for thought when they heard about a solution to their gardening problems.

Sgt Parry said: "We've all had trouble with cats messing in the garden and digging the plants up. I feed birds and have a bird bath - cats lie in wait in the bushes to catch them.

"But then I heard on a gardening programme that the only way of keeping them out was by putting lion dung on the borders.

"So I rang Chester Zoo who confirmed it, but they couldn't sell or provide us with any."

But John Shawcross, who has a second home in Colwyn Bay, saved the day when he got a bag from Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo.

"It really is working," added Sgt Parry.

"And once it's down it doesn't really smell. All cats mark their territory so I think since we've put the dung down they've come along and thought 'I don't want to meet him'!"

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.