I would say today started out as a regular day again, but this time I had a dog! So I thought, I need to take care of him so what other than givin’ him a bath! I’m just being a good owner and bathing him in our drinking water. All of a sudden, Travis comes feeling like a sergeant and starts yelling at me, again! Then, he starts abusing my dog, and that’s when I’ve had it. I’m five years old, I’m getting wrongfully accused of doing a bad thing just because I was being smart in the head. Think about this, would you want to clean yourself in clean water or dirty water? Exactly, so when my big brother teaches me how to throw a rock mighty good, I’m gonna put my skill to use. I was doin’ pretty good and then I saw Travis stop trying and just started running to Mama. But I wasn’t done, I needed to get back at him. So I ran back up the hill to swing one at him hard, but now I’m the one in trouble. Mama puts me in timeout, again! As I’m waiting for dinner, Travis is skinning and gutting the doe for tonight, I saw him hang the venison in the dog run, not just to cool it, but because he was trying to frame Old Yeller! It’s too bad though because my excellent dog had just chewed on them bones from the deer’s leg! I could feel the anger boiling up inside him and I knew there was no way on this earth that we were getting rid of Old Yeller.

A couple of days later, something crazy happened. We were eating a supper of cornbread, venison, and some watercress when we heard a loud rumble. Seconds later we saw a bull coming south of the cabin, “That old bull’s taking fight,” Travis told me and Mama, “he’s bragging that he’s the biggest and toughest and meanest. He’s telling all the other bulls that if they’ve got a lick of sense, they’ll take cover when he’s around.” Almost before Travis had finished talking, the second bull came around. You could tell his bellering was just as loud and braggy as the first one. So as they got closer to the cabin where their fight would most likely take place, we finished our dinner and went outside to watch the show. We stood outside of the door to the cabin and saw the first bull come into the clearing. He was a leggy, mustard-colored bull with black freckles on his jaws and the underside of his belly. He had one great horn set for hooking, while the other hung down past his jaws like a tallow candle that had drooped in the heat. We named him Musty.

He trotted out a little piece into the clearing, then drooped his head real low. He went to snorting and shaking his horns and pawing up the dry dirt with his forefeet. He flung the dirt back into great clouds of dust. We couldn’t see the other bull yet, but by the bellering, he made we could tell he was close. There was a split-rail fence around our cabin that we ran to to get a better view. Then from the other side of the clearing came the other bull. It was a large red roan bull with two horns set for hooking. We named him Roany. As they were just about to start the fight, Old Yeller came to the rescue! Now I think he thought we were in danger which is great cause what if we were? Anyways, he came roaring and hollering almost as loud as the bulls were. Once again, Travis is mentally abusing my dog, “Get back there you rascal,” he said, “you’re fixing to spoil our show”.  He actually stopped Old Yeller in his tracks. But he wasn’t done; he just kept baying and yelling at the bulls and so all of a sudden Travis picks up a rock and is about to swing at him and I see my poor dog running back to the cabin yelling as if Travis was about to murder him and that was it; I was amped up to the max. I screamed and bent down to pick up a rock but right before I could get to it Mama held onto me, “Hush, now, baby,” she said, “Travis isn’t going to hurt your dog. He just doesn’t want him to scare off the bulls.” She kept trying to calm me down to the point where I felt like a was just barkin’ at sand. We sat there and watched the bulls get ready to fight and we talked and laughed and had ourselves a real good time. We never once thought about being in any situation of danger.

When we found out the opposite, it was nearly too late. Suddenly, the mustard bull quit taking turns pawing the dirt, “Look out!” Travis said, “Here it comes”. Next thing you know Musty charges roaring his mightiest; and here Roany comes ready to meet him in the middle. They clashed head-on with a loud crash. The clash of horns was so loud you could feel the pain and anger all the way up to the fence. Roany went down- you could’ve almost thought musty was winning. A second later Roany was back on his feet and charging through the cloud of dust. He caught Musty by surprise and slammed his sharp horns into the shoulder of the leggy bull. He held against him so fast and hard that Musty couldn’t wheel away, all he could do was barely keep his feet on the ground. And here they came, straight towards our rail fence. “Land Sakes!” cried Mama as she leaped from the fence dragging me behind her. But for some odd reason, Travis stayed at the fence as the two bulls struggled and got closer to him, he realized he should have gone with us. As I saw him jump off the fence in fear I also saw him fall flat on his face. I could hear their roaring louder than ever, I could see them bleeding at the point where you’re surprised they were still alive. And yet all I could see was dirt and dust. I couldn’t see if the bulls were stomping all over my brother or if he was already dead. Next thing comes and Mamas running back over to the bulls. I couldn’t hear what she said but she pulled Travis out from part of the fight. The both of them started running as fast as they could towards the cabin. We ran as fast as our earthly bodies would take us while the bulls were close behind us. With our last breaths, we ran into the cabin and closed the door just about a quick breath before the bulls slammed against it and shook the whole cabin. A second later we could see through the window that Musty had somehow gotten out of Roany’s horns and was now on him. Here they went, right against the cabin wall, roaring and stomping and scaring us nearly to death. I could see Travis look at me and Mama, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so scared before, and for once, I was too scared to scream. Then I see Travis, and the look on his face wasn’t scared anymore, it was a face I knew pretty darn well. It was anger. I don’t clearly know why he was mad, but I see him grab the whip and go outside. Before he could get to it, Mama went over and warned him, I didn’t hear what she said over the sound of the fight, but it stopped him. Then I see him stick his head out. As the bulls are moving the fight over yonder and destroying most of the yard fence, I start to hear him call, “Old Yeller!” I heard him say viciously, “Here Yeller! Get’em Boy! Sic’em!” I JUST GOT A DOG AND THEY’RE ALREADY TRYING TO KILL HIM! Then, I see Old Yeller didn’t come, he didn’t get’em, and he didn’t sic’em. And I know why, because my brother abuses my dog so much, he was scared when he sees him running towards him with a bullwhip. I can hear Old Yeller running towards the woods yelling like Travis was about to kill him.

The fight ends by Travis whipping the bulls (which didn’t stop anything). We had a heavy two-wheeled Mexican cart that Papa used for gathering wood and hay that happened to be standing right in front of the house. I see Musty rammed his horns clear under Roany’s belly and lifted him clear into the air. He ended up landing right in the cart. All the bull’s weight made the cart tilt very slightly. If you don’t know, we live on a hill. As soon as the cart moved it wasn’t gonna stop. The rolling cart rattled and wobbled all the way down the hill. I couldn’t see any farther but the bull did not come back so I guess the cart did it’s work. As for Musty, I saw him run down to go after the other bull but we never saw him again.

If you remember the paragraph before that last one I’ll finish it for you. The next day after the fight went like this:

Travis got after Mama and me and talked smack about Old Yeller and  how he didn’t help at all the previous day even though the only reason he didn’t help was because he was so scared of Travis.