Mattie does that. If you get up at any point during the night, she runs to the food dish and then howls if you don't feed her.
I haven't seen our stray for a week or so. I was seeing him on the trail cameras by the roadkill deer/bait pile so I hope the coyotes didn't grab him. I thought I saw something on the front porch last night so figured it was him. Flipped on the light and it was an opossum drinking out of the water dish. I may need to take a bucket of water out back this morning and put out some corn before I leave.