No way that was a cat

We always let Bobby (our Jack Russell Terrier) outside one last time for the night. This is between 8:30pm and 9:30pm.

After that, I'm usually the one that goes out to get him well, because there are things out there, and I don't want my wife or my girls going out there at night.

So sometime in March, I went out to go get him from outside on his runner. I called him, picked him up, and proceeded to carry him in. We have a porch in the front of the house (look at the picture) and there are about 3 steps you have to ascend. Flanking the steps on the left is Holly's garden. As I was carrying Bobby and going up these steps, from somewhere in that garden came a loud and long meow.

This was no little kitten meow. This was a tomcat growl - long, low and pissed off. And it was so close it made me jump and made the hairs on my neck stick straight out.

Now, the thing that really wigged me out was that Bobby is a Jack Russel Terrier. So anything that moves is prey. If there really was a cat there, he would have heard that threatening mewl. If he did hear that cat, or even sensed that cat was anywhere in his vicinity, he would have been gone ballistic, twisting like crazy to get out of my arms and yelping in uncontained rage and frustration.

So I'm not sure there was really a cat there. Based on other EVP evidence that I have yet to post, I think this cat encounter was paranormal.