Raising Hare

After watching the leveret spend so much time frolicking in her garden, Chloe is moved to plant flowers and bushes. Although the end result looks rather haphazard, she is proud of it. She is chagrined one morning to find that the leveret has chewed the bottom portion of one of her evergreen bushes and hollowed out a space in the dirt beneath it. She makes an effort to block off this space with chicken wire to prevent further damage, but the leveret merely leaps over it. At that point, she realizes that it has created the perfect burrow for itself and leaves it alone. The bush remains healthy, and the leveret is happy. As it grows, she observes that it has predictable daily movements. She can usually locate the creature in the garden depending on what time of day it is: It rests in one particular place for the same portion of each day. Speaking to a friend who specializes in wildlife, she learns that other animals too follow these predictable behavioral patterns. This surprises her, and she ruminates on the information.

The leveret is growing quickly, and Chloe observes the way that it keeps itself clean, how alert it is when eating, and that it maintains an erect ear position even in repose so as to keep itself safe from predators. It never defecates in its resting places or in her house. Its extreme cleanliness, independence, and nocturnal nature make it seem almost cat-like to Chloe, but she knows that hares are wild and cats domestic. They exist at opposite ends of the food chain: Hares have always had to contend with animal predators and human hunters. Cats have been selectively bred for traits pleasing to humans such as hair length, eye color, and size. Hares remain as nature made them, perfectly adapted to their wild lives. Cats, although independent, allow themselves to be handled and even enjoy human touch. Hares will not sit in a lap or tolerate petting.

Observing the leveret in the garden, where it spends an increasing amount of its time, re-orients Chloe toward the natural world. She finds that she notices when trees first bud and can distinguish different wild animals by sight. All rabbits no longer look the same to her. She notices slight variations in feather patterning in the birds she sees. As the leveret matures and explores more, she begins to worry about it. She does her best to safeguard it from predation, but she understands that it is a wild animal and needs to hone its own instincts. She also realizes that one day she will have to let the leveret leave her garden for good.

At the age of four months, the leveret leaves Chloe’s garden without warning. Although she has prepared herself for this moment and once even welcomed the day when she would know she was free to return to London, she finds herself grief-stricken. She realizes that she will never know the small creature’s fate and does not know how to live with the uncertainty. She even cries when she finds a stray oat from the one of the leveret’s final meals with her. But then, just as suddenly, the leveret reappears in her garden and hops into her house. It resumes its life with her, although it leaves each night to roam the countryside around her home. She is particularly heartened to see it one evening in the company of another hare. She’d been worried that it would be rejected by its kind after an early life spent in the company of a human.

Now that the leveret’s habitat is larger, Chloe realizes how many wild animals actually make use of her land. Seeing the leveret’s tracks and trails in her garden, she recognizes other animals’ tracks and trails there as well. She understands how much humans impact wild animals’ habitats: Even cutting down a stand of trees, cutting a trail, or erecting a fence might alter an environment animals have been using for countless generations.

Chloe also realizes that so many months observing the leveret changed her too. She is more attuned to nature, but she is also less interested in work. She no longer feels as though her career is her entire identity. She wonders if she is as excited to return to London as she once had been. She thinks that she and the leveret both consider her rural home to be their base, the center of their habitat. When she tries to get rid of an old piece of furniture, the leveret is disconcerted, and she ends up bringing it back into the house. She contemplates both her and the leveret’s future, wondering what their next steps will be.

At six months old, the leveret is now almost fully grown. Chloe observes the length of its ears and the delicate power of its legs. It still returns to her home each morning after a night in the countryside, and one day she notices that the leveret is limping. For several successive days, it limps into her garden at first light, and she finds it increasingly difficult to let it go at nightfall. She knows that it is at increased risk of predation in its injured state, but she also knows that she should allow the leveret’s life to run its own course. She calls her sister, who suggests seeking a vet’s counsel. The vet wants her to bring the leveret in or at least to examine it in her home, but Chloe fears that either option would be traumatic for the leveret. The vet then suggests giving the leveret a painkiller and prescribes her a dose of a canine painkiller. He warns her that there is no way of knowing how the leveret will react to the medication, and it might harm it. Chloe decides not to give the painkiller to the leveret, and instead tries to make sure she has as much food on hand as possible for it. Hopefully this will decrease the amount of time it must spend in the wild. Slowly, its leg heals, and life returns to normal. Then, however, plowing season begins. The fields are dry stubble with no food and little cover for animals. Chloe knows through her research that the onset of agriculture and the increased mechanization of agricultural techniques is the single greatest factor in Europe’s declining hare population. She still worries about its safety and frets when it remains outside the garden for several days. As winter approaches, however, the hare spends an increasing amount of time with her and even begins staying indoors for longer periods.