Scared to go outside? :(

Dusty has been acting really weird for almost a week. We're worried someone was keeping him in their house because he was missing for a number of hours last Sunday and his behavior has been really uncharacteristic to the point where he was really distressed for no apparent reason.
My dad let him outside late Saturday evening and he didn't show up until after 5 o'clock on Sunday night. Dusty never stays away that long and our cats are fed moist food early in the morning and late at night with dry food available always. Dusty comes when called from outside, much like a dog, so if Dusty doesn't show up he's probably actually asleep in my sister's room and you're calling him like a fool. Both cats show up for feeding time and usually sleep all day if they were out all night or they're out all day and sleep all night inside and the get up to cat around near dusk. Dusty showed up really late when my mom went out calling for him for the umpteenth time and now he's scared to go outside. He won't go to the door or meow around wanting out like he usually does. My dad just coaxes him outside when before it had never been a problem and Dusty would actually take up acting bad or naughty to be let outside.
On Monday he acted absolutely crazy! He was just pacing the house and crying out, distressed. I tried to pacify him by talking to him. He jumped on a table by the window and tried to bite the blinds and tug the curtains, then he went to my parents bedroom door crying and thumping his full 16 lbs. against it, acting more distressed than when he was just pacing. He finally settled down after a few minutes of that and after pulling a bunch of papers out of a basket so he could sleep in it. The basket is located behind one of our recliners and Dusty doesn't usually sleep....out of sight. He usually sleeps on one of our beds, the couch, or even the middle of the floor, someplace we've been or that gets a lot of traffic. He was outside for an hour on Monday afternoon and came in to use the litter box and didn't go back outside.
On Tuesday he scared the life out of me! My dad had let Dusty outside, even though Dusty wasn't sitting in front of the door but the t.v. nearby which meant he didn't actually want outside, and then he left for work. About an hour later Dusty scared me trying to climb the window screen outside the window! He had his whole body on it and climbed to the middle part of the window (I could see his shadow because the sun comes in through our living room windows in the morning). It took me a minute to realize what was going on because all I heard was the terrible noise his claws made when he tried to climb, before I heard him meowing. I let him in and he stayed in the rest of the day.
On Wednesday my dad was home because he injured his back and nothing really irregular happened with Dusty other than him staying inside and being over-desperate for some of my dad's breakfast.
On Thursday my dad was still home and let Dusty outside before his shower. Dusty showed up when my dad was finishing getting dressed and was ripping at the screen on the window again!! He was let in but was overly aggressive again about eating my dad's late breakfast and managed to lick the bagel and get hair everywhere. He went out a 2nd time that night but didn't stay out very long, less than an hour. I think he also went outside when my dad took our Shi Tzu out to potty but that lasted less than 10 minutes and dad isn't home to ask.
He's been in all of today and was aggressive again about my dad's breakfast even though my mom and I were also eating. Mom said all week he's been waiting to wake her about a minute before her alarm goes off. Usually Dusty wakes her up about 4 o'clock if he's had enough sleep and she doesn't get up until 4:30 on her work days.
Now Dusty has taken to starting cat fights with his mom, Sassy, as of last night. I think it's the pent up energy of not going outside but we would never toss him outside because something's bothering him. I worry that one of our neighbors might have physically picked him up and took him into their house and wouldn't let him leave until he started destroying their house. We live out in the country and have less that a dozen neighbors within view and our cats are usually in the nursery (TN is the nursery capitol of the world!) or woods around our house or the small wooded area across the road from us. Sassy also was acting alarmed on Sunday and showed up hours after Dusty, presumably looking for him.
Any advice or ideas to help him would be much appreciated! If you've had a similar experience feel free to share and I hope yours has a good ending. I feel Dusty is being limited by his own fear and I just want him better. The only idea I've come up with is for one of us to kind of follow him around when he does go outside to see what he does and so he feels safe. But that's just not possible to do often and it sounds kind of silly, to follow such an independent animal like that.

 

If he's acting so different than normal, I would consider taking him to the vet to make sure there's nothing wrong. If something happened to him when he was outside, it'll need to be fixed before he's happy.

As for everything else? That's really strange. He could've encountered any sort of animal or person to make him act this way. I wouldn't force him outside if he doesn't want to go. If he's pent up and has extra energy, maybe go out with him on a leash? That way he can run around a bit but he'll feel safer because you're there with him.

 

It could be that he has encountered something outside that's put the fear in him. Especially since you said once he gets in her is aggressive and starting fights. Maybe he is trying to reaffirm his dominance in the house because outside he got owned by another cat?

Maybe you should let him out on a leash and see if that can maybe put his confidence up?

You say you are in the middle of nowhere, does Dusty have a collar and clearly marked as not a stray cat? It is possible someone might have picked him up and took him away thinking they were saving him, putting distress on the little guy,

Also since you are rural, it is very possible that some wildlife, like a racoon or skunk or coyote caught is sent,a and then gave him a little scare. Check his body for bites, or signs of a scrap. You cant always see them. My neighbor had a little cat, and it got attacked by another cat and was terrified to go outside because of it, she thought it was just a little fight, but in reality the other cat had bit the other cats bum, and because of the nature of cat teeth, she didnt see bleeding, or even a wound, but it became infected and costed thousands to fix, and an operation for the little one!

 

Thanks for the advice guys! He's still acting weird about going outside but he's not acting distressed like that Monday. I don't know if this will take time or if he'll definitely need to go to the vet just yet. He goes out about twice a day for no more than an hour, which is fine since the weather's been bad (rain, cold, no snow but it's in the forecast). We don't own a cat leash and I honestly think the leash would terrify him. He acted like a monster and tried to hurt himself when we first got him used to a collar as a kitten and he acts out when we put a new one on him. I'll keep a leash in mind if he acts distressed again but I worry that could make him worse.

Another animal would be a really good guess, we do have wild animals around. The largest that Dusty would be scared of could be a opossum, coyote, deer, skunk, raccoon, or fox. That doesn't explain why he didn't come home unless he was trapped in a tree or something. We haven't forced him outside but when he's showed interest we hold the door open and let him make a decision.
He hasn't shown any sign of physical pain like limping or being pet somewhere bruised or damaged internally, and we've checked and rubbed on him for marks and bites. Nothing there. Your poor neighbors cat! No wonder it was scared, it was probably in pain too! At least she was able to take it to the vet, hopefully the poor thing overcame its fear and was able to go outside again. Our worst cat fight was with Mac (he passed away of old age this Fall) and another cats nail was stuck in the top of his head. We took him to the vet and he pulled off this gross, huge scab and then removed the nail. It was bad. He healed, so it worked out in the end.

He gets aggressive usually in the evenings. Sometimes it starts with one of them licking the others head and then they fight or chase each other around. They've always rough housed and Dusty loses most of the time, it's just now they're fighting inside the house more than outside and it's happening more often. The only one of our neighbors have cats but they all seem pretty friendly with ours so it would have to be a stray we didn't know about.
Dusty has a collar, as does his mom. We haven't bought tags in years but I told my mom I'd really like to start putting tags on our cats again at least since they're in and out more so than the dog.

He's also still trying to eat my dad's food, even though the rest of us are eating the same thing and my dad isn't giving him anything off the plate. My dad held his plate in the air yesterday morning to keep him from eating off of it and Dusty just licked the bottom of the plate. I'd say it was because my dad's been feeding him but I know for a fact he hasn't so this isn't learned behavior, it's something Dusty's doing on his own.

 

I hope you get this worked out, the poor guy! Its so hard to know what they want half the time, sometimes I just wish they could tell us. I wish I could be of more help!

 

You and blurioctober have been a great help and gave us some good ideas to try out or keep in mind, Scottyxx. I'm glad you guys responded and tried to help with ideas for Dusty!
Dusty's still acting the same but his outside pattern is he goes outside for about 30 minutes about 4 times a day and he hasn't acted distressed so we've been keeping a close eye on him. I think we're going to pull some cat toys out for him and see if we can diffuse some of his energy so he and Sassy won't be tumbling around and making a racket.