Caterwauling.
The wawl or wrawl of cats, the er being either a plural, similar to “childer” (children), or a corrupted genitive.
“What a caterwauling do you keep here!”—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, ii. 3.
· 
· 
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.