On the prowl?

COEUR d'ALENE - Something, says Maureen De La Torre, got her cats.

Perhaps a coyote. Perhaps they were trapped by someone and turned loose far away. Maureen and husband Rudolph don't know what came of 11-year-old Skeeter and 6-year-old Falon. They just know that both of them went out within a week of each other, and didn't come back to their Coeur d'Alene home.

They didn't wander off, she insists.

"They mean a great deal to us," Maureen De La Torre said. "They're our babies."

And this week a neighbor reported that her cat vanished, too, De La Torre said.

The women have scouted the area. They've asked residents. They stopped dog walkers, they called the Kootenai Humane Society. No sign of the felines.

"No one has seen anything," she said.

City police haven't received any recent reports of missing cats, said Sgt. Christie Wood. But she did note that there are coyotes living in a field near the city's transfer station on Ramsey Road. Last year, several residents reported missing dogs and cats, and it was believed coyotes killed them.

Rondi Renaldo, KHS executive director, said they always receive calls from folks seeking their cat. She has heard, too, of coyotes getting cats, but that usually happens out of town.

Fallon went missing Sunday, Nov. 6. Skeeter failed to return to its Columbus Avenue home off Ramsey on Veterans Day.

"They come back and forth, but they always come home," Maureen said. "They've never just disappeared."

Until now.

Both male cats were neutered and both came from the KHS adoption center.

The De La Torres came to love their cats.

Skeeter had long gold and white hair. Falon was a dark gray-striped tabby. Both were part of the family.

"My husband is just sick over the whole thing," Maureen said.

A third cat, 17-year-old Azure, stays inside their home.

She said they are putting up a fence, but it's not yet completely enclosed around the yard.

And while saddened their pets may have been killed by coyotes, Maureen De La Torre understands

"That's nature, and that's what you have to live with," she said.