" It is a very old and widely spread superstition that when a dog howls at night someone not far away is dying or will soon die. Many people are uncomfortable when they hear a dog howling after dark, not because they believe that dogs have any knowledge that death is present or coming, but because their ancestors for many centuries believed that the howling of a dog was ominous, "

― Hamilton Wright Mabie , Myths That Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the Classic Myths of All Times for Young People