A loud, bone-chilling yowl erupts from your normally placid indoor lap-kitty. Whaaaaa? Is she dying, because it sure sounds like it?

A cat will usually make this very distressing call for something quite benign and therefore nothing to be concerned about. However you may want to sleuth out the cause just in case.

A strange cat on your doorstep is most often the cause. Your indoor kitty screams her displeasure, letting the interloper know that the territory is spoken for and to move on. Wild eyes, arched back, bushy tail, and pacing may accompany the yowl.

If your pet is extremely agitated from this through-the-window encounter, let her be as trying to pet and soothe an upset cat may cause her to turn rogue on you with tooth and claw. The simplest and safest solution is to draw the curtains or chase the strange cat away.

A cat in pain may also make these unearthly sounds, especially if it is continuous. Again, be very careful when approaching or touching an injured or sick animal as she may attack. This happened to me last spring when rushing a dying pet to the emergency vet in the wee hours. I was bitten to the bone and had to undergo a course of antibiotics to ward off cat scratch fever.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing cats have been reported to yowl. Perhaps it’s their form of, “Testing… testing….”

Sometimes in multi-cat households the normal status quo is disrupted for some reason or another, and your pets will begin posturing and yowling just like a bunch of children. Let them work it out between themselves unless there is real fighting or bloodshed. This behavior is often exhibited after the death of a four-legged family member and those left behind are jockeying for position in the new hierarchy.

And then yowling could be nothing more than a cat proclaiming, “I am CAT; hear me roar!” My Barney does this frequently in the evening. Diving through the cat door from the catio, dashing through the living room, up the stairs and down the hallway before emitting his victory cry. I just laugh and chalk it up to pent up energy from lying around all day. I’m thinking of putting in a carpeted racetrack for him and his brethren….