roadkill

Coyote, poisoning...

Rule out poisoning and roadkill....there's no bodys.

Things eat roadkill, and poisoned animals go into the woods to die and then get eaten.

Also, someone may be taking the cats and rehoming them?

All good reasons to keep cats indoors, especially now.

Good luck!

ODD doins...3 cats return....what's goin on here?
4 of the 5 regular visitors-(cats)- had vanished one by one over the last month.
It's been a week since the 4th one dissapeared.
Last night about 2:30 AM 3 of the missing cats all showed up together.

Thanks all for the input.....The long-n-short of it all:
keep cats and other small critters inside at night.

I have a small chihuahua and I have noticed Hawks flying around should I be concerned? I'm scared to leave her out by herself.

I've seen some pretty small Chihuahuas....those should definitly be supervised outdoors in Hawk country.

If a hawk can take a large rabbit I don't see any reason why one wouldn't take any creature that looks to be the right size. I think most cats are safe from hawks however, a fox would eat a cat in a minute. Their are grey foxes who climb trees, and here on the east coast red foxes, too. I have chased a fox away from a tree in my back yard in the middle of the night after awakening to the odd bark. I went to the back yard and a red fox (who can't climb trees) had chased a cat up into a tree. The fox was not eager to leave. Unfortunately the cat was spooked and jumped from the tree with the fox in persuit. I hope the cat made it...I have five cats and I have seen all five of my cats ( all at once)chase a red fox (in attack mode) in my backyard during midday. I have a pond and the fox I believe came to drink. What I learned is to keep my cats indoors unless I am out with them. They will stay near to me. An owl would not take a cat unless perhaps it is quite small.

Domestic cats allowed outside regularly are known to have ranges of 17 square acres. That is a lot of country to be covering to think that no bodies would be present.

I am glad some of the cats came home. It speaks to the importance of keeping cats inside or secured and safe in an appropriately constructed outdoor enclosure.

Rene

A few weeks back I was putting out my rather large german shepherd in the morning and I went to go get her and a coyote as large 3/4 the size of her was checking her out. I haven't seen it since but I was fearful for my min. poodle, even though he is 18 pounds.

Cats out on the prowl kill many birds. To have a Bird of Prey kill a cat might seem like justice served to some.

In a nature magazine I read it stated that Cats that stay inside live longer and are healthier then cats allowed to go outside.It went into detail about the impact house cats have on wildlife. Especially birds. Contrary to what some people believe, House Cats are NOT native to NA. They were brought here from the Middle East.
around 39 million birds a year are killed in each state by domestic/feral cats.Cats also spread dieases to other wild life.

Here is a link that might be useful: impact of cats

Of course cats that live inside have longer life expectancies. Though it could probably be debated whether cats that are kept indoors without the possibility of regular exercise are indeed "healthier." It also seems like it would be obvious that cats (which are predators) would have a detrimental impact on small birds, reptiles, etc.

What we know as "house cats" today are not native to anywhere. They have been domesticated and bred to produce certain qualities. They were probably first domesticated in the Middle East (most likely Egypt or Turkey). This fits a larger pattern - this was the site of most animal doemstications as it was the site of the earliest sedentary humans. However, cats did not come to North America from the Middle East, they came with the first waves of settlers and sailors from Europe (as the link you provided states).

To speculate on the question of the original post, I would think that it would be most likely to assume that the cats disappeared from other factors rather than to make the leap that they were taken by raptors.

Ok thanks for the correction, YEs you are right I didnt quite make my point. It was that house cats are not native to NA. Many people justify the killing of birds by cats because they think cats are native.