The pair were welcome regulars in our backyard. He wore scarlet and thus could be seen at once when I glanced out the kitchen window. His partner, never far away, wore a more subdued cloak and was harder to spot, but eventually I would find her. They were inseparable. Cardinals, I have read, mate for life.

Tragically, in an instant, and as I watched, he was alone in the world. A cat leaped over our 6-foot-high wooden fence and pounced. I ran out, yelling, but not in time.

The cat darted away immediately, leaving a sad sight on my patio. There lie the lifeless body of the female cardinal, with her devoted mate standing beside her.

When my husband buried her in the garden, the male sat on a low tree branch nearby, watching intently. Often we see him in the patio garden, hovering near the copper butterfly stake that marks his partner’s grave.

It breaks my heart.

My wonderful black and white woodpecker friend, also a daily visitor to our small urban property, met the same ugly fate. This is so cruel, so senseless, so unnecessary.

These cats, pets of people in the neighborhood, should be kept indoors or on a leash if outside. Unsupervised roaming cats kill tens of millions of birds and small wild animals every year.

Just today, my next-door neighbor said he chased a black and white cat from his yard. Last week, his wife chased a different cat from the yard by spraying the feline with a garden hose. We know we have multiple killers on the loose.

Since the cats are fed by their owners, they are not attracted to humane traps baited with food. Not only do these cats lurk near our wildlife feeders, waiting to kill for sport, they also use our flower and vegetable gardens as litter boxes. How disgusting.

These cats on the loose also compete with native predators, such as owls and various hawks, which need to hunt in order to survive.

Pet-free by choice, my husband and I have our small city yard nationally certified as a backyard wildlife habitat. The only animals welcome in our space are those that are part of the natural environment. Local native wildlife did not evolve with the domestic cat, so the wild critters lack natural instincts to avoid it.

I hold my breath whenever fledgling birds are on the ground learning to fly. They are so vulnerable to cat attacks.

Mourning doves make their home next door on top of my neighbor’s upturned rowboat, and all of us are vigilant when baby doves are in the nest. In the spring, I saw the same light-colored cat that killed our cardinal stand on its hind legs below the boat and look up at the nest.

Although Allentown has an ordinance prohibiting pet owners from allowing dogs and cats to wander, people game the system and make enforcement difficult. One neighbor who was reported several years ago and contacted by city officials simply told them he did not have a cat. Yet several of us watched him open the door and let the cat out to roam, even after he was confronted by an animal control officer.

If cat owners do not care about the fate of wildlife, they should at least care about the well-being of their pets. Cats permitted to roam have much shorter lifespans than cats kept inside. Wandering cats face multiple dangers: motor vehicles, dogs, kids with rocks, feral cats, diseases - such as rabies - traps and poisons, and angry people who don’t want someone else’s feline in their backyards.

Keeping cats inside is a win-win situation, for the cat and for our beautiful native wildlife. If not, a cardinal, woodpecker and countless other songbirds die horribly and needlessly.

I want no more killing in my otherwise serene backyard.