(2/12/2025)
When author Chloe Dalton decamps from London to her country home to wait out the Covid lockdown, she has no idea her sojourn will result in writing an exquisite memoir about a relationship with a wild hare. In Raising Hare, she chronicles coming across a newborn "leveret" (baby hare) while on a walk in the meadow. Fearing for its life, she moves past her reservations and takes it home.
From the beginning, Dalton knows the tiny creature, though in need of care, should not be treated as a pet, and as such, refuses to give it a name. Her instinct to provide it nourishment and shelter leads to a miraculous opportunity to live with and learn from a wild creature and gain a new appreciation of the natural world around her.
Dalton is an immensely curious writer and storyteller. Her style is lyrical, not overwrought. I appreciate the clarity of her prose as she interweaves her intimate tale of sharing space with a leveret—and eventually its offspring--with fascinating research and observations about hares (which are NOT rabbits!) in history, art, literature, folklore, and mythology. She questions agriculture practices in her close environment that negatively impact animals that inhabit the land.
Halfway through the book, she describes her complex feelings when the leveret, now an adult hare, ventures beyond the garden wall out of sight into the vast field beyond. She wrestles with reason: Her goal had been "... its return to the wild, and it had decided it was ready." Holding back sobs, she honestly weighs her emotional response: "I had been bewildered by the responsibility of raising the leveret, captivated by its endearing ways, stirred by its mysterious nature and thoroughly inconvenienced by its dogged presence." Would she ever see the creature again?
It's no spoiler to reveal that the hare returns and, able to roam free, it chooses refuge in Dalton's home and even gives birth to three leverets in the garden. Still in lockdown, Dalton knows she will eventually need to return to life in London and her career as a political advisor and foreign policy expert. But this experience has changed her: "If my habits could be overturned by a hare, I questioned what else I might enjoy that I had never considered." She wonders if she had been ignoring "a temperament that longed for quieter, more gentle rhythms."
As I devoured this book, I was reminded of another memoir I read for First Impressions: Carl Safina's Alfie and Me. Also taking place during the worldwide lockdown, Safina writes about rescuing a newborn owlet and, like Chloe Dalton, he cares for his ward with the idea of encouraging it to remain wild and return to its natural habitat. And in each case, what unfolds is suspenseful and surprising.
I highly recommend Raising Hare to all readers who love a heartfelt true story of the profound lessons learned when humans and wild creatures are able to form an unexpected bond.