Report 25111: Ohio howl type vocalizations for several hours in early morning near Lacey's Spring

My son has convinced me to contact you. I will tell your organization of our encounters. On November 28 2008 I was visiting a friends house in Lacey's Spring Alabama. His house is in a small middle class  neighborhood with mountains and woods that stretch for miles behind his home. I woke up to use the bathroom at about 4:00AM and had just laid back down when I began to hear loud vocalizations. The sounds where very similar to the Ohio and Mississippi recordings. I was inside the house and his heating unit was running so they must have been very loud outside. I got up and went out on his back deck but by the time I got there they had stopped. I listened for about 10 minutes and heard nothing. The heating unit was next to the deck and was quite loud so I decided to go back inside. About the time I started to fall asleep it started again the howls lasted about 3 minutes. Then stopped I thought that it might be my friend snoring in the back bedroom but I don't believe this was so because the neighborhood dogs where barking throughout the area in response to the howls. At this point I knew something outside was making the noise. I wanted to go into the woods for a better listen, but walking into the woods with no one in the know and not prepared for self defense or to photograph or record the creature did not seem like a wise proposition. The howling started and stopped 3 more times and finally finished at dawn. I talked with my son about what I had heard and he and I have also had a encounter with this animal in the past.