At the agonizing moment of truth when Travis acknowledged the need to shoot the dog, I have a bit of a quarrel with his words, "He's my dog. I'll do it." Old Yeller was their dog as much as his. Perhaps a better choice of words would have been something like, "Pa told me I need to be like a man while he is away. I'll do it."
shareEh I can kind of understand where you're coming from. My family has almost always had a dog. We had this one dog, Chloe, who was technically the family dog, but it was understood that she was mostly my dog. I was the one who spent the most time with her. I fed her, bathed her, and she stayed in my room on cold winter nights. Now, we have a dog, Snickers, who is the family dog, but we consider her to be my dad's dog, because he has a relationship with Snickers like I had with Chloe. Both dogs were family dogs, but both "belonged" to a certain family member. I would consider Yeller to be Travis's dog. He had been through the most with Yeller, and I think his line, "He was my dog" was appropriate.
Each to his own, of course :)
You describe it exactly right! We have had dogs but mainly cats. Even a cat will "latch onto" one person more than others, just as dogs do. It will be obvious which person is preferred.
Our poodle Buffy was "Mom's dog". Our cat Timothy was "my cat", with loyalty to Dad a close second. Sometimes, a pet will seem equally affectionate (back in the Fifties~our little mixed-breed dog, Gingerbread). However, the average cat or dog will have "my person".
Yeller's pup seems closest to Arliss at the start, but that could change as the animal ages. He might connect more to Travis eventually. At least he does show Travis that he's "a chip off the old block"; Old Yeller isn't completely lost to them.
(W)hat are we without our dreams?
Making sure our fantasies
Do not overpower our realities. ~ RC