Raising Hare

“In all his years of working on the land, he had never heard of anyone successfully raising a leveret. ‘You have to accept that it will probably die from hunger or shock,’ he said. I’ve met people who reared badgers and foxes, but leverets cannot be domesticated.”

Chloe does not want to let the leveret die, but as she nurtures it, she remains mindful that it is a wild creature. In this instance, The Challenges and Rewards of Caretaking mean accepting that the leveret will never be a pet. She does not attempt to domesticate it or even give it a name. Accepting that the leveret will interact with her only on its own terms, she does her best to prepare it for life in the wild.

“I listened to the landscape. It was quiet enough to hear the thrum of wind over the ground, and the boom as it struck the wood. Quiet enough, during lulls in the wind, to hear the call of individual birds. It was a soundscape of sky and timber and earth.”

Although an avowed city dweller, Chloe finds life in the countryside soothing, enjoying The Therapeutic Effects of Nature. She re-kindles her childhood appreciation for the flora and fauna surrounding her converted barn, and spends more time reflecting than she did pre-pandemic, when the pace of her life was much more hectic. Here, she observes the difference between outdoor and indoor sounds, and vows to remain as quiet as possible in the house so as not to scare the hare and to recreate its natural habitat.

“As adorable as it was, I could not forget that was a wild creature.”

Chloe develops an attachment for the leveret, but she does not attempt to domesticate it. She is able to love the creature from a distance, channeling her feelings into observation and appreciation rather than physical touch. Although the leveret will sit on her when eating and later develops the habit of reclining on her ankles outside, she is mindful of its space and does not initiate physical contact.

“The leveret was particular in its tastes. A ripe strawberry left to tempt it was disregarded, but it loved an occasional raspberry.”

Caring for the leveret becomes a passion for Chloe. She reads as much as she can about hares, and that research gives her a better idea of how to provide for the leveret while also preparing it for life in the wild. The act of researching hares and then caring for one becomes a key part of Chloe’s self-care during the stress of the pandemic, evidence of The Therapeutic Effects of Nature.

“But to name the hare would be to declare it a pet, and that would, I felt, be to take something away from it.”

Part of Chloe’s unwillingness to name the hare stems from the admiration she feels for hares as a species. She is well aware that they are not domesticated creatures, and for that reason she keeps an emotional distance, but she also hesitates to anthropomorphize the hare because her research into hares turns up much that she finds awe-inspiring. She respects their wildness, but also their strength and agility. She is fascinated by the way that they are perceived across various cultures and feels that her one hare, although unique, is also the representative of a fascinating species.

“The leveret developed a fascination with seams, such as the one on the side of my trouser leg, and would nibble its way down, like a crimping iron, its teeth never biting but its grip firm.”

Although Chloe does not attempt to domesticate the leveret and limits the time she spends touching it, it does develop a level of comfort with her that she finds striking. Here, she watches as it investigates her pant leg. She must strike a balance between allowing the leveret to interact with her and not acclimatizing it too much to human behavior. In order for the leveret to be successful in the wild, it cannot see humans as caregivers. It must remain cautious of a species who will always remain a potential threat to its safety.

“It could have, I supposed, been signaling something to me, but it spoke in a language I could not follow.”

Because hares have not been domesticated, there is no way to communicate with them. Dogs and cats learn to observe human body language and are attuned to tone of voice and facial expression. Because of the amount of time they’ve spent with humans across thousands of generations, they have developed the ability to communicate non-verbally. Hares do not have direct experience with humans and as such their forms of communication are incomprehensible to Chloe. Communication is one of the key ways that Chloe observes hares remain wild, and her lack of ability to communicate with the leveret is a constant reminder that it is not a pet.

“The bare, unpromising bed grew into a tangled mass of colour. I was proud of it, despite its imperfections. It would win no prizes, but it was mine.”

Chloe finds caring for the hare soothing, and she is increasingly drawn to nature as a way to cope with the stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the hare spends an increasing amount of time in her garden, Chloe comes to appreciate the space more. Populating it with flowers, shrubs, and bushes becomes a new way to self-soothe, and the more time she spends outside, the calmer she becomes.

“It had never occurred to me that wild animals could be so predictable in their habits.”

The author is naturally inquisitive and enjoys research and learning. In order to properly care for the hare, she delves deeply into the history of the species and its habits. She is struck by how regular a schedule the hare keeps and is interested to learn that other animals too follow predictable patterns and can often be found in the same places at the same time of day. Learning about hares, other wild animal species, and the environments they call home becomes another way that the author copes with the upheaval of pandemic life: It is a project she can throw herself into in order to distract herself from news of the spreading virus.

“The leveret’s preoccupations influenced me in other, subtler ways. As its gaze traveled further, so did mine, drawing my mind and increasingly my feet outdoors. Now nearly four months old, it began to take a visible interest in other life in the garden and in the world beyond.”

The author notes at the beginning of the novel that after a rural childhood, she spent her adult life entirely in cities. She was habituated to the rhythms of urban spaces and found a return to the countryside during the pandemic destabilizing. The leveret re-orients her toward the natural world, and she finds an increasing sense of calm by observing nature. As the leveret grows and spends more time outside, so too does the author. She is surprised to find that she enjoys her time in the country as much, if not more, as she did her years in London.

“I thought about picking the leveret up, but something in its posture made me hesitate. It belonged there.”

One of the primary lessons Chloe learns from the leveret is about wildness and domestication. Although the leveret’s behavior resembles that of a cat in many ways, and it becomes habituated to her presence in its life, she is careful to maintain a certain distance and to always recognize that it is not a domesticated creature. It must be allowed to live by its natural rhythms and to develop the kind of intuition and life skills that will allow it to survive in the wild. This means that at times, even when Chloe worries about the leveret, she forces herself to leave it alone.

“Now out in the fields, the leveret was indistinguishable from all others. I would never know what happened to it, whether it lived to raise leverets of its own or was shunned as an alien by other hares, or if it was snapped up by the first cunning fox. I felt grief at the end of a magical experience and loss for days never to be repeated.”

One key lesson Chloe learns from the leveret is the magical love of an animal. She admits that she once looked down on people who cried when their pets died, but now she understands that loving an animal is different, that it allows a person to love without any of the complications that are present in human relationships. It also increases empathy and compassion. Chloe fully realizes the nature of human-animal love only when the leveret disappears for the first time, and she is somewhat surprised to find herself so grief-stricken. This dichotomy between love and grief is central to The Challenges and Rewards of Caregiving.

“When we cut down a stand of trees or erect a fence, we are cutting across trails that have been used by wildlife for generations. Animals, like humans, take the easiest routes across an area. Their trails develop in the landscape and are as familiar to them as our local footpaths and shortcuts are to us.”

This book is in many ways a meditation on the way that humans impact wild spaces and the natural habitat of animals. Here, the author realizes that even small changes she makes to her property will affect the local fauna profoundly. If she were to completely fence her property in, or cut down a stand of trees that blocked a view, she would be altering the habitat of wild animals who might have used those trees for cover or chosen to give birth to their young in the quiet of her garden.

“Hares are creatures of habit, and I had become one too.”

Observing the hare changes the way Chloe thinks about hares but also about herself. She develops new habits and behavioral patterns. She adjusts to life in the country in ways she hadn’t thought possible. Raising the hare becomes transformative for her, and she realizes that she will never completely return to the life she led pre-pandemic.

“My anxiety knew no bounds. I could not, would not, lock it in the house. I could not stop it leaping the wall at night, which it continued to do, and I could not stop a predator from seizing it.”

Allowing the leveret’s life to take its own course is at times difficult for Chloe. Although she steeled herself for the experience of allowing it out into the wild, she finds it difficult to leave the creature to its fate once it becomes injured. She knows that she should not interfere, even if that means leaving the leveret vulnerable to predation, but seeing the small creature limping fills her with grief. Letting go is one of the hardest lessons that Chloe learns about The Challenges and Rewards of Caregiving.

“I pondered the concept of ‘owning’ an animal in any context.”

The hare also causes Chloe to ruminate on the nature of human-animal relationships in the context of domesticated pets. She develops an admiration for the hare that allows her to understand other animals in new ways. She finds that there is much to respect about animals aside from their ability to bond with humans. A dog is a wonderful creature not because it is a human’s “best friend,” but because of the many innate qualities that make it a dog.

“Affection for an animal is of a different kind entirely, untinged by the regret, complexities, and compromises of human relationships. It has an innocence and purity all its own.”

Chloe learns key lessons from the hare, including how special the bond is between humans and animals. Once someone who judged people for loving their cats and dogs, she now realizes that loving an animal is a true gift. This knowledge changes her, alters her priorities, and makes her more appreciative of the many small animals that populate the area around her home.

“The intensification of agriculture has been described as the ‘super-factor’ leading to the decline of the hare population.”

As part of Humanity’s Changing Relationship With Nature, Chloe discusses the role that agriculture plays in the decline in hare populations. While she limits her discussion to humans and hares, she acknowledges that this holds true for other species as well. Humans alter their environment in ways that other creatures do not, and they have caused widespread destruction in the natural world through the expansion of their settlements, agriculture, and other large-scale building projects.

“I knew there was nothing I could do to drive the stoats from the garden, nor could I protect the hares from the buzzards and kestrels that keened above me in the summer skies.”

Even years after finding the leveret, Chloe struggles with the knowledge that her hare and its offspring are not domesticated, in spite of their affinity for her. She cannot interfere with their lives any more than she already has. The most difficult aspect of living with the hare and its leverets is that she cannot safeguard them from predation.

“As I now know all leverets do, it produced a leap that was something between a tumble and a cartwheel.”

This particular behavior is ill understood by scientists and often commented upon in popular culture. Chloe identifies this behavior as part of hares’ generally curious nature and rejects the folk belief that this behavior is evidence of “madness.” She wonders whether the hare would be better understood if people had a greater appreciation for small creatures in general.

“Some people no doubt though me naïve for seeing only the charm and appeal of hares rather than the damage they can cause human projects.”

Chloe remains dedicated to her hares in spite of the pushback she receives from friends and family. Once someone who judged others for their love of animals, Chloe becomes an advocate for animals and will share with anyone her thoughts on the special nature of the human-animal bond. She knows that people find her choice to live with hares and leverets odd, but she enjoys their presence and even builds a small door for them in the side of her house. Still, she does have to admit that they can be destructive. When the male leveret begins chewing on her windowsills and curtains, she has to move the curtains so he cannot do more damage or injure himself by eating cloth.

“On the day following the leveret’s death, a pair of vast tractors working in tandem, crawled the potato fields to the east of the house.”

Chloe’s research on hares included information about the impact of human encroachment onto their habitat. She learns that industrialized agriculture, more than any other factor, led to the decline in their populations across Europe. She has opportunity to observe that process in motion in the area surrounding her home. She can see that her garden provides protection for not only hares, but also many other species. Wandering outside of her property leaves animals vulnerable to large, mechanized equipment that can mow them down while they search for food in the fields.

“From hunting to farming, we have done so much damage to hares over the centuries.”

Chloe develops a deep and abiding love for hares through years of observing her hare and its offspring, and she ultimately becomes much more critical of humans as a result. Although once an avowed city dweller who gave little through to wild animals, raising her hare caused a marked shift in perspective. She is more contemplative about the interactions humans have with animals, but also better attuned to the rhythms of the natural world. She has a better understanding of how neatly ecosystems fit together, each piece functioning as part of a larger whole. Because of this understanding she realizes how truly disruptive humans are to both flora and fauna.