There's a large pack of wild dogs, with maybe some hybrids mixed in, that live in the woods behind the lake we live on. Almost every evening around sunset, they start howling just like wolves. It's eerie! The sound carries all around and across the lake. Dogs from all over the lake start baying and barking, including mine. Zoë starts off with this sort of soulful howl/bay combination, and my other three chime in with barks. Our area boarders acres of State protected Watershed Property, and the Mallon Dickinson Reservation is right down the road. Living by hundreds of acres of protected land, we often see and hear "interesting" things. Have gotten pretty used to the howling, but let me tell you, on nights I watch spooky stuff on TV, those howls give me more "Goosebumps" than usual.
Eerie Howling
This reminds me of our local wildlife 'park' Dorise.
Like your story but sort of in reverse.
The wolves there take their cue from police/ambulance/fireengine sirens, which trigger them to howl. Bloodcurdling!
Hi Philomel,
Boy, I'll be sure and not share that bit of information with my pack. Hahaha
Off the subject, are there still ambulances in England that they call the "The Flying Squad? Most of the books we used for our Midwifery Courses the first year, were English. They spoke of home birth and patients taken to the hospital via the flying squad. The name always conjured up some imaginative pictures in my mind....
Not that i'm aware Dorise. Think they were even before my time........
Yes, better not let on, your pack might start up in daytime as well.
Sounds like you don't intend to watch Hounds of the Baskervilles. Without the live sound effects, it's unnerving to me. With them, I would probably not sleep for a month.
I used to love to hear the coyotes when I lived out in the country.
I miss them here in the city.
I hear coyotes everynow and then here on my mountain. I've howled back a time or two but they never answer me.
Vickie
I'm trying to imagine that low, soulful howling on a particularly dark, scary night when I'm home alone and about 3/4 through a really terrifying movie. I think that might make me jump right out of my skin.
Just wanted to point out, btw, in reference to your comment about the dogs "...howling just like wolves", that dogs apparently ARE for all intents and purposes wolves. In recent years when researchers 1st began looking at the DNA of various animals, they were shocked to find that there is essentially no difference between the DNA of dogs and that of wolves. In fact, based on the DNA, experts say if dogs were being named today they would be classified as domesticated wolves. According to the researchers, every dog from Chihuahua to Great Dane, my long-haired, bow-topped, frou-frou Maltese included, has the same DNA as a wolf, and all the diversity we see in domestic dogs is just a function of which switches/genes are turned on or off. So, on the inside, they really are wolves. (Since I 1st read this some years back, I look at my tiny dog in a whole new light.) Just thought this info might add something to your neighborhood, midnight melody.
I love that.
I love it too and my chihuahua is the meanest wolf.
Vickie
:)