I’m sorry for your loss. Amazing how these critters who *find* us, leave footprints on our hearts.
Our cats were strays and had that *wildness* to them, from their existence outdoors, living as best they could. So they were let out a lot. After we found their carcasses, not far from the house, their deaths must have been gruesome. One of the darlings was a deaf, pure white cat....I’m still sad about it.
We can take coyote most of the year. Still pretty difficult, if you live in suburbia.
This pack of canine vermin - and I hate to say that, because I'm actually a dog lover at heart - is the same pack that took down a doe in our neighbor's yard two years ago, and left nothing but the head behind. Our housecats are all actually three generations of direct offspring (all fixed, at my demand), who were essentially born unto us or our ex- next-door neighbor, and acclimated to living indoors quite nicely after being abandoned as kittens and/or lived through the Hail Storm Of The Century and decided shelter was a better option than getting pummeled by golf ball sized hailstones while stalking birds and mice. LOL
