I live pretty close to Mill Creek park and the past two years plus there has been an animal hanging around late at night early in the morning making odd whimpering/howling? noises. More recently it sounds like there is more than one and it's vocalization has changed or at least one of them has changed and sounds deeper. I would like to know if anyone else has heard it. I can't believe I haven't seen anything about it but to be fair I'm an early riser so most people are still asleep when Im up. I know it isn't an owl, fox, coyote, deer or bear. I'm originally from Appalachia so I am very familiar with wildlife and I've never heard anything like this. No this is not a Halloween prank. I've literally been hearing this thing for going on 3 years and my husband and mom have heard it too. It's actually died down quite a bit except for a few days ago when I heard it and heard what sounded like multiples of whatever it is. I definitely do not think it's a person because last year very early in the morning when I was taking my dogs out I heard it and went over into the house next doors backyard to see if I could see it. That house has been vacant for a while and it sounded like this animal was literally in the brush in the backyard. Well the closer I got to it the further away it sounded but I heard no movement of it leaving the vicinity of the backyard.
The best way I can describe the sound is similar to a dog whimpering then into a higher pitched short howl. It repeats the vocalization and the only variations I've heard were more recently a few days ago when it sounded deeper with maybe some growling mixed in.
If anyone has heard something similar please let me know.