"I remember like yesterday how he strayed in out of nowhere to our log cabin on Birdsong Creek. He made me so mad at first that I wanted to kill him. Then, later, when I had to kill him, it was like having to shoot some of my own folks."
― Fred Gipson, Old Yeller
Memorable children's stories I encountered while growing up included Old Yeller, The Yearling, and Where the Red Fern Grows. My fourth-grade teacher read us that last one during school. You know what those stories have in common, besides boys? Tragic loss. Those stories carved a furrow my soul. Shoot the beloved dog for saving you but getting rabies. Shoot the sweet deer for doing deer stuff. Lose a great hound who sacrificed himself for you and have the other of the pair die of a broken heart. Things go bad. Beloved animals die, and sometimes we have to kill them ourselves because we don't want to get rabies or starve. Sacrifice sanctifies. These stories honor the loyalty and fearlessness of cherished pets and the heartbreaking, man-forming acts of the boy.
Contrast those tragic stories with Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe in which the animals experience harsh episodes but are eventually rescued to end their days in ease. It's not just the fate of the animals that's different; the stories are about the animals rather than the humans. That's not a bad thing--I enjoyed those stories--but it is significantly different.