Back in the old days, in addition to white painted strips on roads to demarcate traffic lanes, there were also embedded into the road surfaces reflective devices called Cats’ Eyes.
Each set had a metal casing, in which sat a depressible body that had two “eye” reflectors facing front and two facing back. These “eyes” shone brightly against the headlights of oncoming vehicles at night. In places where a driver was not familiar with the roads on a dark night, these little strings of bright lights were a real blessing to moving ahead safely.
If a vehicle ran over any one of these, there would be a muffled “thum-thum” sound, corresponding to the instances when the front and rear wheels, respectively, hit the Cats’ Eyes. No damage, as it would spring back into position. No meowing sound, of course!