Report 2255: Woman hears late night howl near Alturas

I heard a very strange, and very eery (stand your hair on end) kind of "howl". I know it was no coyote, wolf or mountain lion as some would like to convince me of. Just what it was I don't know but I know it was not very far away from me. I couldn't see what it was or exactly where it was. I live in Alturas, Ca. I have no idea exactly what I'm supposed to put in this report but I've not heard this "howl" again. When I heard this, I was going down to close my gate. My dog (pit bull) came with me as always but stopped about half way down the hill. I called him but when we heard this "howl" for the second time he turned and ran to the house and when I got back up the hill, he was as far back in his dog house as he could get. This is strange for him as he thinks he is the worst thing in the community and really not afraid of anything. I don't know what else to tell you except it was really an eery kind of howl and not anything like I've ever heard before. We have a lot of dogs in this part of Modoc Estates and at that particular time, not even one was barking like usual.