Old Yeller is bitten while saving his family from a rabid wolf. Travis cannot risk Old Yeller becoming rabid and turning on the family, and has to kill the dog.

The post-Civil War story, “Old Yeller,” chronicles the tale of a stray dog who becomes a beloved pet. The story turns tragic, however, when Old Yeller is bitten by a wolf and contracts rabies. Confined to a pen and suffering, his owners must make the heartbreaking decision to shoot him in an effort to avoid further transmission.

While there is no official record of the hydrophobia (rabies) outbreak that happens in the book, the first reports of rabies in Texas did come from cattle drivers (like Burn Sanderson in Old Yeller) who reported being attacked by “phoby cats” in the middle of the night during long drives through the desert in the mid-1800s.