My 13 year old neutered male does it too but he has been doing it since he was 2. He only does it after I go to bed and he always is carrying his favorite toy. When he was 2 he had a small stuffed chicken he carried around thus we dubbed the wailing at night "chicken cry". This subject has come up before and other kitties do the same thing.

I read recently that cats' brains can get Alzheimers. Strange behavior of any kind,especially in an older cat, may be a symptom. My 14 year old occasionally "yowls" at night. A strange,low moan.

Cats often vocalize when their thyroids go out of wack. Hyperthyroidism is pretty common in older cats. Just this past year we had our Sally (age 17-1/2) treated for it. Its pretty easy to detect on blood work, has she been to the vet lately for a geriatric workup? Some other signs include weight loss, increased drinking and urination, and sometimes increased appetite.
Other thing is -- maybe her hearing is going and shes "talking" to reorient herself in your house.

I would watch for signs of weight loss and increased hunger. Just incase this is a thyroid problem.

Our 14+yo cat yowls at different times, often when she has just woken up from a nap, and at night. We have recently become aware that she is going deaf. She also has only one good eye(the other was damaged when she was a kitten), and she has early CRF(but thyroid is still ok). We had to give her up to a shelter for about 9 months, and when we got her back, she had started the yowling. She will walk around our(tiny)apartment, acting like she is lost, and we have to carefully let her know we are there, so as not to startle her.Sometimes, during the night, she will race up to my pillow and "rreow, rreow, rreow" in my face until I wake up and reassure her, then she will settle down again. I don't think I've had a good night's sleep since she's been back with us LOL, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We want her to be as comfortable as she can be for the time she has left with us. It is interesting though, to watch her sit in front of an open closet door, and yowl at it, as if to say "is anybody in there?". We still have some boxes in there that we moved with and I wonder if she can smell the other cats we used to have and is wondering where they are.

Thanks everyone,
It all sounds very much like what is going on in my house. I never thought about an Alzheimers condition......she does seem kind of senile. She was at the vet not long ago for a dental cleaning and they thought she was quite healthy besides her nasty teeth(she even had some pulled). She eats well but she has increased her water intake which happened to my other old kitty. I had him put to sleep a year ago, he had bad kidneys but he lived to be 18!

My hyperthyroid cat use to yowl *all night*, it was terrible. Our other cat sometimes makes a really weird musical yowl after we all go to bed- for him it's not a medical condition, but rather that he gets confused about where everybody went after dark- this is especially true if he falls asleep while everything is light and alive and wakes up when it's all dark and quiet, that can almost send him into a panic attack until he locates us. Sometimes I think his night vision might be getting a little bad too.

Your cat may be going deaf.