We've never lost a dog, but we did lose a cat once. "Garfield," a yellow tabby, would, on occasion, get out of the house, but would always come back the next morning. He was basically an indoor cat. One night (it was dark out), I was out in the driveway working on the car and the garage door was open. Apparently the door from the garage to the utility room had not shut all they way. As I looked up from my car, I saw Garfield darting out of the garage and into the (very dark) back yard. We spent about an hour calling him and looking under every nook and cranny, but to no avail. We finally decided to call it a night and figured he would return, crying at the back door, like he always did. But he never came back. We didn't see him DOR (dead on road) so figured he was probably gotten either by a Coyote or maybe a Hawk. Never saw a trace of him.