Explanation: A connotational meaning of a word, is the meaning the reader can give to it, according to the context, it is the contrary of denotational meaning which is the literal meaning of a word, the one that we can find in a dictionary. In this case, according to the context, the connotational meaning of the word "laden" is "filled with", with tha meaning the sentence makes completely sense.
The theme in this book is friendship. Zane will do anything for Bandit and Bandit will do anything for Zane. Zane is stranded because he loves Bandit so much. Bandit runs away and Zane chases him until he catches him, even if it means getting lost during a hurricane.
