Old Yeller: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

After thinking a lot about what to do, Travis decides to tell Mama what Lisbeth told him about Old Yeller stealing from their neighbors. Mama suggests that Travis start tying Old Yeller up at night, but Old Yeller chews through the ropes. Next, Mama suggests keeping Old Yeller in the corncrib each evening, but Old Yeller howls so loudly that no one can sleep. Travis suggests Old Yeller sleep in the room with him and Arliss. Mama warns Travis that he and Arliss will pick up fleas and ringworms when Old Yeller inevitably sleeps in the bed—but Travis doesn’t care.

Within a few weeks, more and more varmints have begun raiding the Coateses’ corn patch on a nightly basis. Knowing that he has to protect the precious corn harvest, Travis takes Old Yeller outside to sleep with him in the corn patch each night. The nights are long and restless—Old Yeller is up several times each hour fighting off raccoons and possums—but Travis loves sleeping out under the night sky. Each night, he looks up at the stars and gets lost in fantasies of the day when he will go off on a cattle drive himself. Each night, Travis grows more and more grateful that Old Yeller came to stay. Papa, he realizes, was right: Travis needed a dog, and badly.

Travis realizes just how badly he needs Old Yeller when Mama declares that it’s time for a new milk heifer. The only available heifer the family owns, Spot, has been wild and ornery from birth—and when Travis and Old Yeller set out onto the property to find her and bring her to the barn, they discover that she has recently had a calf and is thus even more irritable. Nevertheless, Old Yeller helps Travis wrangle Spot down off the hill and into the barn. When Travis tries to milk Spot, she grows feisty and starts kicking at him. Old Yeller again comes to Travis’s aid by standing in front of Spot and glaring at her to keep her in line. Over the next several days, Travis enlists Old Yeller’s help each morning and evening—within a week, Spot has become docile.