Stella

Stella sleeps through the night for the first time. She understands that Connie is not coming back, but she still misses her. She goes on a car ride with Esperanza and Cloe. Esperanza compliments her daughter on how well she is doing with Stella. Stella thinks that it is strange how humans use so many words when it is much easier to gather information through scent. Esperanza tells Cloe that they have to test Stella in many different types of situations before they can know how well she is doing. Cloe, however, is confident that Stella will do well today. Cloe plans to read Charlotte’s Web to Stella.

They arrive at a hardware store and meet a man named Vern. He tells Cloe and Esperanza that hounds cannot be trained and will always break people’s hearts because they follow their noses and forget about their people. He tells Esperanza that his nephews are coming and they will be shooting squirrels and other animals, so she should keep her dogs off his property.

Stella realizes that Cloe’s chemical smell has gotten stronger. Stella tries to alert Esperanza to this, but she cannot get the message across.