Something is wrong with my cat today. There's been these moments where he will suddenly break out in prolonged meowing, punctuated by panting (which I've never seen him do otherwise). He also continues meowing even when I pet him (which is also unusual for him; he usually immediately stops meowing of any sort when being petted), and the meow itself is unlike his ordinary meow (It's... I'm not sure how to describe it. It's unlike his ordinary vocalizations: he's never made sounds like his even when something was wrong and he was meowing for help). It sounds... injured. I can't describe
why it sounds that way, more... organic? Like a belly meow (if that's even a thing) Actually, it sounded a lot like a human's impression of a meow. He sounded scared, or hurt. Finally, he didn't react when I touched him at all: he was just sitting on his tummy, meowing.
And than it stopped after a few seconds. It's happened a few times this evening though, the longest was for about 15 seconds. And the really strange thing is, once it stopped, he immediately went back to acting normally, and even meowing normally. If it hadn't been for that I would have thought it was something wrong with his vocal cords or that he hurt himself somehow, but he's really back to himself when its over. I have this vague sense that it could be psychological... my mother noticed when he did it in front of her, and since she hadn't seen it before (and she lives with him, and I do not) that means it must have started today or yesterday. Do cats get panic attacks? Maybe its seperation anxiety? Or maybe it's waves of pain from some tummy issue, or I don't know.
I've been worried about my cat on-and-off for a while now, but it's usually been a matter of loneliness and cleaning his litter box. I hope he's not in pain.