The canine chorus

Trooper and Maya, howling

The 2:00 a.m. canine chorus starts out low and quiet
a single voice tentatively tests the atmosphere
sending out a quiet howl to see who responds, what life lies beyond.  Awakening pack members join in, happy to leave their beds or maybe just raise their heads to make music in the cool night.

We usually have a couple group howls every day, for no apparent reason.  The first one is usually pretty early in the morning and it seems to be about greeting the day.  A siren will set one off any time of day, but the morning howl usually starts without any obvious prompt.  The most poignant howl I remember was when an old foster, Klaus, died.  Everyone knew he was gone or going and as I got him lifted into the van for the final trip to the vet, the howl started up.  It was a most beautiful and fitting send off. 

Cabell was always the songleader in our household. He'd start up the group howl and everyone would join. If someone else started it and Cabell didn't join in, the howl generally petered out before it ever really got started.  Cabell is mostly deaf now and he no longer participates in the howls, much less leads them.  That's sad because he always had a wonderful voice, a nice baritone, always on pitch.  Sparky is a great howler and he seems to be trying out for the leadership position in the chorus. 

Maya is quick to take up the howl and she and Trooper often sing from the top of their observation tower as shown in these pics.  Maya has really found her voice in many ways.  The girl talks all the time whenever she has an audience.  Herc is a whiner, but Maya voices with a modulated howl, using an indoor, person-to-person voice when she has something to say to one of us, which is much of the time.  It's mostly when she's wanting to go outside in the mornings or when she comes in.  After she gets inside she will stand at the top of the stairs and talk to me as I walk up.  Zachary is quite a talker too, but mostly just to Clay.  Maya vocalizes like Emmylou used to when Clay came home at the end of the day, telling him everything that he had missed.  Like Emmylou, I think Maya wants to make sure that we know everything that is going on, even the stuff that escapes mere human observation.