Light flashes in a small dark patch of sky just to the right of the Milky Way.

My dog wanted out and all the dogs in the neighborhood were barking.  Saw an orange light, like a roman candle, appear above the west horizon and fade out.  Then a bright shooting star.  Then a white wisp of light shot across the yard like a ghost.  
Then to the right of the Milky Way in a dark patch of sky, I saw a light flash and thought it was a plane high in the sky.  I waited a couple of seconds and it appeared again in a different spot, then it appeared in another spot and kept doing that but was confined to that one dark patch of sky.  It didn't progress across the sky as a plane would have.  It must have flashed for a few minutes like that and then nothing. 
Later I saw a couple of jets from Davis Monthan AFB flying back to base.  Also saw a sputnik (as my Granddad used to say) before I saw the strange lights.