Report 9047: Morning dog walkers hear repeated vocalizations and find scat near Oak Harbor

My wife and I exited our house at approx 4:30 A.M. through the electric garage door. We each had a dog on a lease and were proceeding to the road to walk the dogs. I live in a private community on Whidbey Island, WA, about 10 miles south of Oak Harbor, in Island County. The area is heavily wooded, and there are no residents on the opposite side of the road from our house. Immediately upon exiting the garage to the short driveway leading to the road, we encountered a very powerful smell. The smell was like something had died and decomposed. Upon entering the road we heard a very loud call, half animal and partial human in nature. It came from directly across the road in the edge of the woods. A second call came from our side of the road, but further down the road. That call came from the woods at the edge of my property. It was an identical call, but it seemed to be a smaller animal. The two creatures communicated for about three minutes using various tones in the calls. My wife and I became fearful and the dogs were frozen in their tracks. We decided to go back in the house. I finished getting ready for work and came back outside at 5:30 A.M. The smell we had encountered was completely gone and there were no more mysterious calls. I had never encountered anything like that in my 14 years on the island.