Check your cat for having been stung by a bee or wasp or even a hornet.

If a buzzing fly is upsetting her to that extent perhaps she has
accidentally disturbed a nest or something whilst she was out - or even just
one stinging insect that has actually stung her. One wasp can sting
repeatedly, and although herein the UK it's not quite wasp season, they are
about.

Another thing it could be is seagulls. They can be really vicious if they
have young about.

I would not force her to go out (apart from to the vet) or sit in the
window. Let her get her confidence back in her own time.

chas

Candace, thank you - we are in Ireland - have never seen a mocking bird
here - that sounds so exotic :)    But we do have magpies and she also has a
bad injury to the back of one paw that we only saw after 2 days of this
strange behaviour - its at the very top tucked in under the hip and she
hides it very well.  (I have now cut away the surrounding excess fur today
to give better access to the area in order to medicate - she loves me
trimming her long tummy fur in summer so I was allowed to do this.)    We
thought first the cause of her rushing back into the house after asking to
go out was an alarm, then we moved to the magpies theory after the visit to
my parents house test and further examination of the leg, but today we have
switched to the fly/bees theory.   (Logic being that she may have disturbed
a bee's nest, they buzz just like flies to kitty.)   I guess it could indeed
be the magpies.....and now even a small thing flying is bothering her ?
Yes, there has been a hawk around here about a year ago - quite rare though.

Don't get me wrong, I would *LOVE* if she had made a happy decision of her
own accord to become an indoor house pet....(we have tried to persusade her
to this way of thinking with limited success as in much reduced time spent
outdoors)...but she didn't choose this happily, its against her nature and
now she is so depressed.   I normally work from home so she can have the
window open to come and go as she pleases, which she does, and has a very
well settled routine.   Now her routine is completely shot.   Kitty came to
us as a little stray, who had fended for herself on the streets through the
winter, while pregnant and almost died of pneumonia.   She is now the most
pampered pusscat on the earth :) and our house basically runs around her.
I cannot bear to see her not even confident in her own home....she won't
approach the windows which she loves !   Even if we take her to the window
there is only a 50/50 chance she will consider it safe to remain there for
even a few minutes (upstairs windows being considered safer than downstairs
ones)

Laura

...

Possible for any location I suppose.

I and my indoor-only cats enjoy observing nature and even listen
to the outside sounds through an external microphone. About three
months ago, apparently a mother hawk brought her young to our
inner big-city, a residential area with lots of trees. We were
glad for the opportunity. Sometimes the hawk(s) would fly in for a
drink at the birdbath. Unfortunately for the hawks, the local
birds (grackles, mockingbirds, and blue jays) took offense to them
being around. Usually high in the trees, the hawks were badgered
and chased around for months. More than once, I saw a grackle
chasing a hawk which had a few feathers missing. Many times, blue
jays ganged up on a hawk, shrieking and dive bombing (in the trees
at very close range), until the hawk would fly to another tree
branch. The young hawk(s) often cried all day, apparently waiting
for its mother to bring a dead carcass. The crying went on usually
for several days at a time.

Thank you all so very much for your different ideas and thoughts.
Late last night kitty left the house after 6 days. under cover of
darkness......there were no flies buzzing around late at night and as she
asked to go out for the umpteenth time,  I decided to let her, sure that she
would run back in after a few seconds.....but the little madam went out
slowly at first, at 12:30am and did not return until 5:25 am, except to come
back occasionally and say hello, accept a little tuna, but not to come in.
We tried chasing her many times to come back in (a game where she usually
eventually concedes) but she was happy enjoying a good time after many days
of being cooped up and in the end we let her play, it was a warm night and
we were just so relieved she went out and seemed happy and comfortable with
it....little sexy catwalk parading up and down confidently......simply
amazing !  Much better than the cowering, terrified little scrap of fur she
was earlier.    We took the decision then, as she had taken that first huge
step, not to freak her out any further today by taking her to the vet
(extremely traumatic experience for kitty).     I saw the vet today alone
without kit - the vet agreed to see me without her as she is very well
acquainted with kitty, in fact Kitty represents her particular pet subject,
its also hard to forget kit, she is so compelling and adorable.      Where
to begin ?

She thinks its highly likely that the leg is probably something kitty did to
herself (as my husband has said also for a while) since kitty is prone to
picking out her own fur, regularly taking out the third eyelid etc. although
the fur removal has been mostly confined to the head area and specifically
the eyes.   Kit has been doing very well with this problem for the last 12
months though, at least I thought she had.    She thinks that it is most
likely a bee sting or indeed with kit, it could be something she dreamed
although considering the force of kit's reaction, she believes it is a real
experience rather than an imaginary one.  My concern, as was the vets, is
how to calm her down sufficiently to allow her to begin to move on.   We had
the time to properly discuss kits full background as she was not there
stressed, wanting to go home NOW, all strange problems related to the fact
that she is hypersenstive, highly intelligent, highly strung, the vet warned
me that she is highly manipulative etc etc. a whole lot of other highlys and
to a great extent I have created a monster by pandering to her every whim.
(Yes, we have built our lives around kitty - she is super-loved).   All of
these things I already knew and love kitty for.      We had a long
discussion where we likened her to a person with Asperger's Syndrome to try
to relate to make a human comparison and the vet said that this is a case
where I cannot treat her as you would another cat.  I needed to encourage
her and not pander too much too any new demands, for example, only feeding
her upstairs for the last 6 days as she refused to come downstairs to
eat.....basically if I know she can come downstairs (she can) then maintain
her normal routine as much as possible, this will help relax her as she
loves routine - and she really does !!   Kit has eaten much cream and
chicken downstairs this evening - always susceptible to bribes, kit
understands the game, so long as she feels safe.     Kit wanted to go out
again this morning first thing (7:30am) skipped down to the door, saw a
beautiful sunny day and her daughter (the cat next door) waiting on the
doorstep to play with her, but this time she also saw a fly on the doorstep.
This had the by now familiar reaction- she let  out a simple whimper that
says "I'm terrified" and retreated at fantastic speed upstairs to hide under
a bed.     This time when I looked under the bed she had not flopped out
flat in depressed state, and back as far as possible, instead she was
sitting up, only halfway back and still looking lucid and bright-eyed and
interested.   She hopped straight out for me with just talking to her, and
went immediately to an upstairs window so the confidence is finally
building.   All good signs.  We have waited until 6pm to bring her
downstairs today, in the meantime I pampered her upstairs and let her sleep
a lot....it took 3 times of collecting her and bringing her down to get her
comfortable enough to stay downstairs and then she settled magically back to
her favourite window complete with comfy cushion.    Tonight she has asked
to go out again, at 10:00pm when darkness hit, and she is still out playing
right now.    She refuses to come in to this moment - 00:45 and I suspect I
am in for another long night.  For now, I don't care, it is worth it to see
that spark in her eyes and body language.

So, for now, she will have to be a night cat when the flies go to sleep and
the buzzing stops.  In winter there will not be so many flies around and I
hope in time she conquers her fear.  I am sure she will with coaxing, love
and where necessary, bribery. :)   Meantime, we will put her on Prozac to
help her calm down (something which I was supposed to do some time ago in
relation to previous behaviours I had not associated with this.)   I held
off before as I was afraid of her becoming addicted, side-effects, how to
wean her off etc, but the vet told me it is slightly diff. for cats in terms
of addiction, I will watch closely for any adverse reaction, and we will
make it a short term affair, as in 8-10 weeks to see the effects and
reaction.   The vet was not entirely hopeful she will overcome this one
completely, due to the personality involved, but I remain confident in my
little kit, she is amazing.  I respect this vet a lot but I also know
something of determination and willpower and kit's will to go out is STRONG.
She will overcome.     The vet also gave me the name of a cat behaviour
specialist whom she says would be fascinated to meet with my kit and try to
understand her and help her, so we may go there in the future, not for now,
not until kit is more sure of herself when there are blue daylit skies
about.

Thank you all so much for your responses.

Laura