Chap­ter V: The Stow­away begins in qui­et heart­break. With Lady sick and sent away for treat­ment, Lad is left to man­age their rest­less son, Wolf. The young col­lie is wild and undis­ci­plined, need­ing the firm but fair pres­ence of his father. Lad takes to the task duti­ful­ly, and by the time Lady returns, Wolf has matured. But some­thing shifts. The bond once shared between Lad and Lady weak­ens, replaced by her new­found close­ness with Wolf. Lad tries to join their play­ful moments, but he finds him­self left out, no longer the cen­ter of the fam­i­ly unit he once held togeth­er. Seek­ing com­fort, he turns to the Mas­ter and Mis­tress, whose affec­tion remains, though it can­not fill the hol­low left by his mate and son.

When prepa­ra­tions for a trip to the Catskills begin, Lad sens­es change again and, feel­ing invis­i­ble, qui­et­ly climbs into the car as a stow­away. Hours lat­er, his pres­ence is revealed in dra­mat­ic fashion—he foils an attempt­ed rob­bery at a road­side stop, alert­ing the Mas­ter and becom­ing the unex­pect­ed hero of the moment. This act earns him a place on the jour­ney, though his pres­ence was­n’t part of the plan. How­ev­er, at the hotel, rules are rules, and Lad is placed in a near­by ken­nel, leav­ing him con­fused and iso­lat­ed once again. But Lad is not one to accept sep­a­ra­tion pas­sive­ly. Under the moon­lit sky, he finds a way out and fol­lows his family’s scent through unfa­mil­iar streets to the lodge.

In his attempt to reunite, Lad stum­bles into more trou­ble. Explor­ing the grounds, he finds him­self drawn to a study filled with rare books and del­i­cate artifacts—the pri­vate retreat of Ruther­ford Gar­retse, a seri­ous man with lit­tle patience for chaos. When the room is found in dis­ar­ray and valu­able items bro­ken, sus­pi­cion nat­u­ral­ly falls on Lad. His mud­dy paw­prints and mis­placed fur seem to con­firm the accu­sa­tion. Gar­retse is furi­ous, demand­ing action. The Mis­tress is hor­ri­fied, the Mas­ter defen­sive, and Lad is con­fused, unsure how his loy­al­ty has led to this shame. But the real cul­prit reveals itself in a flash of mischief—a mon­key, small but deter­mined, swings down from a cur­tain rod.

The mon­key belongs to Mrs. McMur­dle, a guest who secret­ly kept the pet despite the inn’s no-ani­mals pol­i­cy. The crea­ture had escaped and turned the study into its per­son­al play­ground. Its reap­pear­ance clears Lad’s name, shift­ing the ten­sion into laugh­ter and relief. Gar­retse, though rat­tled, acknowl­edges his error, and the innkeep­er apol­o­gizes for the mis­un­der­stand­ing. Lad is wel­comed back into the fold, no longer just tol­er­at­ed, but cel­e­brat­ed. His escape, though incon­ve­nient, proves his loy­al­ty and clev­er­ness once again. He hadn’t meant to cause trouble—only to stay close to the ones he loved.

The trip ends with a sense of heal­ing. The Mas­ter and Mis­tress now see just how deeply Lad feels, how much he yearns for con­nec­tion. Upon return­ing to The Place, there is no more talk of dis­tance between him and the oth­ers. Even Lady and Wolf, their close­ness still intact, greet him with renewed warmth. The expe­ri­ence has remind­ed every­one of what tru­ly matters—not hier­ar­chy or roles, but the deep, per­sis­tent love that binds them. Lad’s posi­tion in the fam­i­ly is not reclaimed; it was nev­er lost. It was only wait­ing for a moment to be seen again.

This chap­ter wraps humor, hurt, and redemp­tion into a sin­gle thread, reveal­ing the com­plex­i­ty of rela­tion­ships with­in and beyond species. Lad’s qui­et resilience teach­es more than any scold­ing or lec­ture. In mis­un­der­stand­ing, he holds his dig­ni­ty. In rejec­tion, he still choos­es loy­al­ty. And when the chance comes to walk away, he instead returns—tail high, heart open, and belong­ing ful­ly once again. Through Lad, we are remind­ed that fam­i­ly isn’t about con­stant atten­tion, but about always find­ing your way back to one anoth­er.