In the story “The Stray” by Cynthia Rylant, Doris, our main protagonist, is very mature. This is because she cares, she is observant, and she is mostly persistent. First of all, Doris pis mature because she cares. One thing she did to show she cares is she shoveled snow on her day off. Also, she picked up a stray dog even when the author quoted “it made it’s way with ears tucked, its tail between it’s legs, shivering” perhaps another child would walk away scared, but she picked it up. And at the end she cried because the dog was going to the pound. Another reason Doris is mature is because she is observant. She noticed that her family is not the richest because the mom was worrying about food. In addition the da was missing work (nine days)