Animal Stories

Dog Stories and Cat Tales

• The Black Cats' Message   
  Mysterious black cats send a message to Aunt Kan in this excerpt from Spooky Southwest.

• The Black Dog of Hanging Hills
  A dog haunts the hills of Connecticut.

• Callin' the Dog
  Mississippi tall talk.

• The Jersey Devil and the Dog
  Mrs. Sorbinski finds the Jersey Devil in her backyard with her dog clutched in its claws.
• The Shaggy Dog
  A woman loses her pooch between Salem and Springfield and starts looking for her extremely shaggy dog.

• Wait Until Emmet Comes
  Do you really want to wait for Emmet? (West Virginia)

• The Wampus Cat
  A hunter meets a terrible beast in the woods of Tennessee.

• Why Dogs Chase Cats
  It's a dog chase cat kind of world. (Virginia)

• Yukon Wooly
  Born to a backwoods trapper in the Canadian Northwest, Yukon Woolly became the main-stay of folklore from the banks of the Saint Lawrence River to the Bering Sea.

Bird Stories

• Mrs. Chory's Chickens
  Mrs. Chory gets into major trouble when her chicken chokes on some corn.

• The Crows are in the Corn
  Georgia folktale explaining an old saying.

• Crow Brings the Daylight
  Crow flys to the south, seeking to bring daylight to the Inuit, who live in darkness all year long. (Inuit)

• Gollywhopper's Eggs
  A traveling salesman comes to town with a most unusual product to sell.

• The Gulls
  Retelling of an historical event that became part of Utah Folklore.

• The Heron and the Hummingbird
  Why Herons eat fish and Hummingbirds drink nectar.

• Mrs. Peter's Pens
  Someone is swiping Mrs. Peter's Pens.

• Rainbow Crow
  The snow has come to Earth and all the animals are freezing. Can Rainbow Crow save them?

• Yellowhammer
  Why Alabama folk are called Yellowhammers

Strange Creatures

• Bear Lake Monster
  Be careful swimming in Bear Lake! (Utah)

• The Birth of the Jersey Devil
  The origins of the Jersey Devil.

• Coyote and Wishpoosh
  How the Northwest coastal tribes were formed.

• The Devil and the Loup Garou
A lazy man sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for help around his farm. (Quebec)
• Joseph Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil
  The ex-King of Spain meets the Jersey Devil while out hunting game.

• The Lake Tahoe Serpent   
  A man encounters a giant serpent in this excerpt from Spooky California.

• Ogopogo, the Lake Monster
  A giant serpent roams the waters of Lake Okanagan.

• Sasquatch
  A couple of hikers encounter Bigfoot while out on the trails.

• Slide-Rock Bolters
  Tourists, beware! Deep in the mountains of Colorado lurk the slide-rock bolters.

• Tailypo   
  "You know. I know. All I want's my Tailypo!" A woodsman learns the hard way that he should be kind to animals in this excerpt from Spooky South.

More Crazy Critters

• Allison's Alligator
  Someone is eating all of Allison's apples! Can you guess who it is?

• Attack of the Mammoth
  A mammoth attacks and kills a hunter and stalks his wife and child. (Kaska First Nation)

• Aunty Greenleaf and the White Deer
A witch roams the woods near Brookhaven, New York, disguised as a white deer.
• Babe the Blue Ox
  Paul Bunyan finds a little blue ox the Winter of the Blue Snow.

• The Bakery Bear
  One bright morning, Brenda has a surprise visitor to her bakery.

• Coyote and the Columbia
  The origins of the Columbia River. (Washington)

• The Devil's Hole
  A strange horse is sent to a priest to aid him in the building of a new church. (Quebec)

• Eavesdropper
  A Maryland man learns a hard lesson about eavesdropping.

• The Fisherman and the Bear
  An old fisherman meets his match. (Maine)

• Fur-Bearing Trout
  Colorado Fisherman developed a new trout catching technique following the visit of a hair tonic salesman.

• Harry's Hair
  Harry the Horse is afraid he is going bald, so he decides to do something about it.

• Hoop Snakes
  Pennsylvania has a particularly mean variety of hoop snakes rolling about.

• The King of the Sharks
  The King of the Sharks has a mischievious son. (Hawaii)

• Mississippi Mosquitoes
  And you thought your mosquitoes were bad!

• The Monster that Ate People
  A mammouth attacks a traveling family. Kaska First Nations. (British Columbia)
• Rabbit Plays Tug-of-War
  Rabbit tricks two water Snakes into playing tug-of-war.

• The Talking Mule
  Even mules deserve a day off now and then. (South Carolina)

• Three Billy Goats Gruff
  Three Billy Goats want to go to the meadow across the ravine, but a fierce troll guards the bridge.

• The Trickster Tricked
  (In which Terrapin the Turtle outwits the Trickster Rabbit)
  Turtle and Rabbit decide to run a race. Guess who wins?

• The White Horse
  Mounted on a white horse, a new bride flees for her life from a rejected suitor.

• Why Opossum Has a Bare Tail
  Opossum wants to make pretty rings on his tail, just like Raccoon.

• Why Opossum Has a Pouch
  Big Bat steals Opossum's babies and she must find someone to steal them back.

• Yankee Doodle Donkey
  Yankee Doodle Donkey decides to go to town on the Fourth of July.