Camping in the wild lends to unique sounds from the calls of the local inhabitants claiming their territory or seeking a mate. Hearing wolves howl late at night is both an exhilarating and unnerving sound, knowing you’re not alone and wild animals are nearby, protected only by the wall of a camper or the thin material of a tent. Camping out in the wild you expect and hope to hear the noises, that’s one of the reasons you’re out there in the first place. Since I don’t go camping, my idea of roughing it is that the ice machine is at the other end of the hall, I usually only get to hear the late night sounds of wolves howling on National Geographic. So imagine how unnerving it was to wake up to the sound of howling at midnight in our bedroom.
I bolted straight up out of a semi-sound sleep looking around trying to find the source of the soulful howl. The howling came from across the room, inside the bedroom. Living in the Midwest, we don’t have wolves, a few coyotes, but no wolves, so you can imagine how being roused out of my sleep to the eerie howl would be a bit strange to say the least. The sound didn’t come from outside, because the dogs were still asleep and if there was an interloper outside our window, the dogs would have jumped up barking and throwing a fit. AJ was asleep in the round bed next to my side of the bed so he didn’t howl. Charlie was asleep at the foot of our bed, so he didn’t howl either. No, the howling came from the dog bed next to Mitch’s side of the bed. Orso was dreaming and for some reason he howled in his sleep. The weirdest part was the neither of the other dogs stirred a bit.
Why I have no idea, because when they’re awake, they don’t howl. I know, I’ve tried to get them to howl, but they won’t cooperate. So I’m usually standing around howling all be myself, looking pretty silly. Most dogs run in their sleep or make small woofing sounds, but I’ve never heard them howl. So now I have a dog that dreams he’s a wolf. Next he’ll start sleep walking, raiding the fridge. I see lots of sleep interrupted nights ahead.
A woman's view of hunting...with men 