Travis Coates

Travis Coates is the protagonist of Old Yeller and its sequel Savage Sam.
==Role in the films==
===Old Yeller===
Originally, Travis was the first-person character in the book. Likewise, he has to be the man of the house for the summer while Jim is out selling steers for current money, as where they live used to be part of the Confederate States, but when it became part of the United States, their money turned useless. To do this, he has to take care of his family and do a man's work.
When Travis sees Jim out, he asks him not to forget the horse he promised to bring back for him from Kansas. But Jim also tells him that he could also use a good dog as well.
Shortly after, when Travis is plowing the cornfield he notices a stray dog chasing a jackrabbit, but when he chases him into the garden, he spooks the Coates' mule, Jumper, and Travis ends up getting dragged across the garden. As he begins to chase Jumper, Travis yells at him to leave Jumper alone, as he ends up accidentally ends up destroying the fence. Outraged, Travis tells him to get out and begins throwing rocks at him as he runs away.
Later that evening during supper, Katie brings up Belle, the dog Travis had when he was little and how she always protected him. He states there never was one like her.
The next morning, Travis notices that a piece of middling meat is gone and sees the dog laying on the ground by the door. He is outraged at him for coming back and eating it. Arliss comes out overjoyed to see him, but just as Travis is about to scare him off, Arliss gets involved and Katie quickly rushes out to break up the fight. When she decides to let Arliss keep him, who he names Old Yeller, Travis objects after what the trouble he had caused, but she states that he's not being fair to Arliss because he had a dog when he was little, but Arliss didn't.
Later on, after returning from the woods with a newly shot deer, Travis sees Arliss and Old Yeller in the pond they get their water from, angrily tells him to get out, and it soon escalates into a fight where Arliss begins throwing rocks at him until Katie intervenes. That evening while hanging up the new meat Travis tells Old Yeller that if he touches it he'll shoot him right between the eyes and even lowers it closer to the ground for him to get. The next morning Travis sees it has not been touched and is surprised, but also puzzled.
Then, when Travis and Katie see that Arliss has gotten ahold of a black bear cub, they see its mother charging toward him. As Travis rushes to scare her off with his axe, Old Yeller quickly rushes in and attacks her, driving her off much to Travis' amazement.
Travis begins to love and respect Old Yeller, who comes to have a profound effect on his life. But later on when their neighbor's daughter, Lisbeth Searcy, tells him that Old Yeller has been stealing meat and eggs from their neighbors, he decides to keep him busy so he won't have time to do so. The next day after rounding up their cow, Rose (who had just had a calf), Old Yeller is able to keep her at bay allowing Travis to milk her, proving him to be a successful cow dog as well. Later on, Travis meets his owner, Burn Sanderson. After he trades him for a horned toad and home-cooked meal, which Katie supplies with pleasure, he informs Travis of a plague of rabies going around.
The very next day, Travis takes Old Yeller out to help him mark a herd of wild hogs. After marking one of the piglets from a branch overlooking a small ravine Travis accidentally falls off and one of the hogs bites his leg. Old Yeller attacks it, holding the herd off allowing Travis to get away. After he sees them retreating, he calls out for Old Yeller but he doesn't come. When Travis quickly rushes to see if he is all right, he sees him scratched up pretty bad, so he hides him in a small cave and goes back with help. Later on after Travis and Old Yeller have been bandaged, Lisbeth and her father, Bud, return with one of their dog Miss Prissy's puppies as a gift for Travis. He appreciates the gesture, but says he has Old Yeller and lets Lisbeth give him to Arliss. When Bud comes in to see how Travis is feeling after being hog-cut he begins to explain the plague of rabies going around and certain animals, including wild hogs, can have been carrying it and that a friend of his died from it once. Katie is a bit horrified from his story, but Travis tells her not to let it frighten her, for he could tell none of the hogs had the symptoms and he and Old Yeller make full recovery.
A few days later, with Lisbeth helping out, they see Rose is staggering around sick and Travis confirms that she has rabies and shoots her. Later that evening while Katie and Lisbeth are burning her carcass, a wolf shows up and tries to attack them. It and Old Yeller engage in a fight as Travis comes rushing out with his rifle and shoots and kills it without harming Old Yeller. At first he is relieved, but when Katie explains how no wolf would have jumped them at the fire like that, implying that it had rabies too. Travis (refusing to shoot Old Yeller after how many times he saved them) states that they don't know for certain and convinces Katie to have him pinned up in the corn crib for a while to be on the safe side.
For the next few days, they see that Old Yeller seems all right, until one night when Travis brings him some food he snarls at him as he slowly closes the door and leaves. He begins to realize that Old Yeller does have rabies after all, but tries to hide it from Katie and Arliss. But when the latter goes to let him out, the former runs out, quickly shuts the door, and sees the horrible truth. When she comes out with Travis' rifle he begs her not to shoot him, but she says there's no hope for him now. Travis states that he was his dog so he reluctantly shoots him and walks away with a heavy heart.
The next day, when Jim comes home with the horse for Travis he asked where he is. Katie tells him that he and Lisbeth are over at North Hill burying Old Yeller. After coming back Lisbeth tries to convince Travis that he could learn to like the puppy, being part of Old Yeller. But he states that while he may be that, he's not Old Yeller. After Katie tells Jim about him, he talks to Travis and tries to make him feel better.
After returning home, Travis sees the puppy stealing a piece of meat, a habit he inherited from his father. Travis then accepts him as his new dog and names him Young Yeller. Some time later Travis and Arliss are out with him, who is now an adult, and he begins chasing after the same jackrabbit his father chased at the beginning of the film.
===Savage Sam===
In the sequel, Travis returns as the man of the house. He has also grown up quite a bit and is a young man. While Jim and Katie are in San Antonio visiting their ailing grandmother, Travis is put in charge of the ranch.
Travis is first seen preparing bacon and mush for breakfast, much to Arliss' dismay. But then he says if they get done with the chores they might be able to go hunting. While Arliss is out milking the cow Savage Sam gets involved and ends up causing her to get riled up. Travis overhears the commotion coming from outside and comes out to settle things down. Shortly, he and Arliss engage in an argument and Arliss begins throwing rocks at him, until their Uncle Beck arrives and breaks it up. Travis is amazed how he was able to handle Arliss when he can't. Beck gives him the advice of outthinking him and make him think it's his idea.
Later on, while clearing brush out of a nearby field, Savage Sam begins to chase after a bobcat that's been raiding their chicken coop. Arliss wants to go after it, but Travis tells him that they can do so after they finish clearing the field, but he goes ahead and rides off after it, much to Travis' dismay. Shortly, Bud and Lisbeth arrive with urgent alert that Indians are raiding the nearby ranches. Travis and Lisabeth then mount his horse and go out looking for Arliss. They find him and Savage Sam in a small cave trying to flush the bobcat out. Unable to get him to come out, Travis is forced to pull him out by force. He is outraged and engages in another fight, as Lisbeth tries to break it up. All of a sudden a gang of Apaches show up with the herd of horses they had stolen and kidnap them.
Now captive by the Apaches, Travis thinks they'll make him a slave, Arliss into one of them, and Lisabeth into a Squaw. But Travis promises her that he won't let them harm her, because he cares so much about her. That night while the Apaches are asleep Travis, Arliss, and Lisbeth attempt to escape, but are quickly caught when one of the Apaches is awoken by the sound of Savage Sam's barking. When he attempts to kill them, Travis tosses him into the stream awakening the others and they attempt to kill Travis off, but are stopped by their Comanche chief.
The next morning, after being chased by a battalion of soldiers, the chief throws Travis off his horse and leaves him. He tries to get the attention of the battalion but they're too far away. Travis stumbles over the body of an Apache that had been shot and killed. Travis takes its gun, finds its horse, attempts to mount it, and go find his friends, but it runs away and he is left alone once more. Shortly, Savage Sam arrives on the scene and both he and Travis are rejoiced to see each other. Travis then puts a lead on Savage Sam and has him follow the Apaches' scent. Once he is on the trail, he takes off and accidentally leaves Travis behind.
Travis is soon found by his Uncle Beck and his posse; including Bud. He informs them of the situation and they head off to find the Apaches and rescue Arliss and Lizabeth. They soon find Savage Sam in fight between a pack of wolves, but managed to scare them off. They soon find the Apaches, when Travis sees two of them fighting over Lisbeth. A hectic fight breaks out between the Apaches and the posse. When Travis sees one of the former riding off with Lisbeth he mounts a horse and rides after them. He is able to rescue Lisbeth after an amazing shot by Bud.
With the Apaches defeated, Travis, Lisbeth, Arliss, Beck, and Bud return home, where Travis states that he thought they'd never see it again. He then goes inside to cook supper, but Lisbeth states that that's women's work. They both go inside and most likely begin a relationship together.
==Gallery==
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Category:Heroes
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Category:Old Yeller characters
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