"OLD Yellow" question... (teaser)?

Old Yeller was rabid. He had rabies from bites from the rabid wolf he fought. This is ages before there was a cure for it. Rabies was fatal for animals and human beings alike, and it's a horrific death.

In the 1930s, my mother was bitten by a rabid dog when she was 7 years old and was extremely fortunate that her mother had read about the vaccine. Her father had to drive many hours over two-lane highways taking her for treatment which back then involved casesful of vaccine. But, it was far better than what people used to have to do if someone was infected: chain him/her to a tree or in a barn. There was no other choice because they could not kill a person as they could an animal; and, the victim would be trying to attack others unless controlled.

Sorry to go on about that, but many people seem confused about this in "Old Yeller" and in "To Kill a Mockingbird". Much of the rabies horror is past, but it adds so much to these stories to understand what it was like for people back then~what a threat this was.

To protect his mother and brother. By the way it's Old Yeller. :)

he was sick with rabies