Missing :-(

This is our beloved Belle. He was named before we had determined for sure what his gender actually was.

He started out as a house cat 15 years ago, but when I was pregnant with Julianne, he and his litter box moved. We put the litter box in the garage but Belle didn't like being in the garage. Once he tasted freedom, being allowed to be outside, he didn't want the confinement of the house or garage.

In the last couple of years, now that he's getting old, he has chosen more regularly to stay in the garage and even comes into the house eagerly once in a while.

We heard noises a couple nights ago outside. Cat fight type noises. Belle was fixed but would still do battle sometimes when a neighborhood cat showed up in our yard. Clarence went out to investigate but didn't find any cats around. Belle wasn't in the garage, but he wasn't around outside, either. Since he's fixed, that just doesn't happen. He's always around somewhere.

Now it has been a couple days since we've seen him and we would really like to know what happened to him. Clarence fears coyote.

Our other cat, Chip, simply disappeared one day two years ago. It's so hard-you keep hoping they'll show up again, but with every day that goes by, the hope dissipates a little more.