Here’s a little schematic to understand the layout. Help me figure out this mistery, not only to satisfy my curiosity but also to know if the cats in my street are in any danger.

Before reading and to avoid triggering any of you, my cat is fine and he was asking for belly rubs in the sun on my backyard just now.

So, I live in the house with the backyard with the B. My cat occasionally hangs around my neighbor’s backyard too. At curfew, if he’s outside, I come calling and he comes in.

Last night I called him in the backyard at B and he didn’t come but he was replying terrified. I know his meowing and this was “I can hear you, I’m scared, help me”. I couldn’t see him since only my backyard had any light. Every time I called he replied immediately in the same panic. That by itself wouldn’t scare me since he’s very anxious and easily startled. Once he entered the neighbor’s house and got locked in and he was yelling for me from inside the exact same way. But this time was different. The sound came from the outside the house, somewhere around the circle in A. And always from the same exact place. It really seemed he was stuck, he was definitely not budging.

I went around the house through the empty terrain (blue arrow) with a flashlight to see if I could see him and figure what was wrong. As I started moving through the low vegetation I heard and somewhat saw some movement in C in the direction of the arrow. I called my cat again and he was no longer replying. I looked inside my neighbor’s backyard and saw nothing.

I went back into the house. My mother was in the backyard (B) calling my neighbor. She said she saw nothing but heard a huge noise inside the house near the backdoor. The description of the noise sounded a lot like my cat running in panic. After a while looking for him inside and outside we eventually found him hiding behind furniture, peeking very cautiously. It took a while but he recovered. He has no injury or any kind mark of any struggle on his fur.

What I’m pretty sure happened:

• He was around A completely terrified of something and was not budging
• At the moment I entered the empty field whatever C was, it ran from me
• Also at that moment, my little demon flew through the fences and into my backdoor so quick my mother couldn’t even see him and made a huge noise running for his life (as he often does)

What I have no clue and want to find out:

• Most important, what the hell could C have been?

• Was my furry murderer frozen on fear or was something actually physically preventing him from leaving

• How long was he “stuck” there until I came calling him for curfew?

Some relevant information and, since I know some you are against leaving your cats going outside:

• My cats are indoor/outdoor, as most are here, and they can come and go as they please, though mine mostly stay inside and in my backyard. The cat in question explores just a bit more, but not much.

• At night, they have curfew and are inside only, and they know that routine

• It’s a calm street and the cars are slow. Also, for specific reasons my cats are terrified of cars and they even hide when they hear an engine.

• There are no known cat predators here. This is southwestern Europe in a 500k city suburb. There is a small woodland near here which I know very well and the most dangerous thing there is a hedgehog (I actually had one living in my backyard for a year). A fox is very unlikely since I never saw one here. But I have seen foxes in stranger places.