Title: What's Up With That Dawg?!
Description: A folktale set in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Many years ago, in the village of Tapara in the tropical island of Triniland, there lived a very strange man called Mr. Harry. Mr. Harry married a young widow, promising to help care for her four young sons. Although Mr. Harry had taken over the widow's shop, the mother and sons were often hungry because they were not allowed to use groceries from the shop. Further, this Mr. Harry demanded a meal every evening, and often would eat so much, little was left for the widow and her boys. One night the two older boys landed a broomstick and a leather belt across the back of a large white pig that ambled into their kitchen when everyone was asleep. Next morning neighbors had to make a bush bath to soothe the sore bodies of the boys who were mercilessly beaten by Mr. Harry for attacking poor, defenseless creatures. Another night the young mother saw a large white dog with its head deep in her pot, the mother poured a thermos of crushed ice and cold water on the animal's back. Next morning neighbors had to bathe the mother in bush water to soothe her pains. The mother and sons moved to an abandoned house next to the entrance of the forest, down at the end of Cemetery Street. The family had become terrified of the shopkeeper who never really lived with the family though he had married the widow. Villagers were disgusted with the shopkeeper, and mothers took turns sending their sons to carry a cooked meal for the family every evening after school. However, as the boy carrying the food would approach the old house he would often be attacked by this strange, large white dog, which would snap the bag out of the boy's hands and gobble up all the food. Many schemes to avoid the dog were tried. Some worked; some didn't. Eventually a group of boys came up with a plot to get the dog. All along Cemetery Street, villagers in the sparsely populated neighborhood, heard the retching and squealing of the strange animal which had gotten much more than the boys had bargained for. The dog disappeared just about the same time Mr. Harry left the village. Villagers were puzzled. A few days after Mr. Harry disappeared a strange woman with a flouncy, colorful head-tie, and colorful, billowy skirt, visited the village. She confided in Ma Mabel,a mother who had followed a suggestion by the boys about how to get rid of the strange dog. This woman claimed to be looking for someone she had wronged many years before. She had put a curse on the person. She had pronounced a curse on a wonderful young man who had refused her overtures. He had loved a girl as young as himself and had told this strange woman visiting his village that she was too old for him. Appearing next to his bed one night, after he had securely locked his door, this woman declared, "Till the day I die you shall eat like a dog and at nights sleep in a sty . . ." The woman had been going from village to village in search of this man. Ma Mabel listened quietly to the woman, but did not trust her. She told the woman nothing about the strange man and the strange dog and strange pig. She just prayed that the poor scalded animal would remember the way to be freed of the curse. And thinking of that dog, she felt only compassion for Mr. Harry.