Nico Killed by Coyote

My sweet baby Nico kitty.

My sweet little Nico was killed in the yard sometime last night. He didn't come in when I called him for bed but that's not unusual on a nice night.  He never left the yard and liked to sleep either on the back porch or under it.  I found his body about 30 feet from the back porch this morning.
The body was stiff and there was a look of terror on his little face - his teethed barred for a fight.  There were two puncture wounds on either side of this backbone on his sides and one little scratch on his head. I think a coyote's jaws grabbed him and crushed him. There was very little blood. It had all been just for sport.
I buried him in the flower bed out by the garden under the butterfly bush and put a large flat stone over the spot to mark his grave. He liked to sniff the flowers there. I will miss him terribly as he was my lap kitty who liked to snuggle and  who wanted nothing more in life than to have me pet him. He showed up in the yard during the summer of 2005, just a tiny frightened kitten,  so I judge that he was seven years old.