That "one incident" can be passed over, with modest brevity.

It concerned a black-and-white cat which Lad saw, one evening, sneaking past the campfire's farthest shadows.

He gave chase.

The chase ended in less than ten seconds.

And, Lad had to be bathed and scoured and rubbed and anointed, for the best part of twenty-four hours, before he was allowed to come again within fifty feet of the dining tent.
On a raw morning, the car and the truck made their appearance at the foot of the rocky mountaintop hillock.