I knew nothing about hares when I began this book, not even that their young are called leverets. But I quickly learned that, and so much more as I read Chloe Dalton’s fascinating account of finding a stranded leveret and bringing it home with her. It turns out this was no simple matter – starting with her decision to do so.
It’s easy to feel emotional about baby animals, particularly the furry ones. They appeal to us on a basic level, and often inspire in us a desire to care for them. But as we have learned, doing so can sometimes have the opposite effect to the one we intended. As Dalton explains, simply touching a leveret can transfer human scent onto it, and its mother will no longer accept it. Just one touch, an attempt to move it from the road to a safer position, to hide it from predators – just that one act of intended kindness can doom the tiny creature. But leaving it exposed will likely have the same effect – who knows how far it is from where its mother left it, and without any camouflage or a mother to feed it, it will be found and killed quickly. So, she takes it home with her, beginning an incredible journey as she tries to learn how to care for her new companion (without taming it so that it can return to the wild).
Even caring for a hare is not an easy task. They have incredible nervous systems that can send them into shock easily, so even taking them to see a vet can be dangerous. Because they’re so rarely in contact with humans, there also isn’t a lot of information available on how to care for them. The information there is – as Dalton learns – is not always correct. To say that her attempts to care for the tiny leveret involve some trial and error would be a vast understatement.
And yet, care for it she does. It survives, and (with some bumps in the road) grows bigger and bolder. She tries to care for it without making it too dependent on her, and as such gives it free reign to come and go from her house as it pleases once it is big enough to do so. But it does continue to come back, and her attachment to this tiny creature, much to her surprise, changes Dalton’s relationship with the natural world around her along with her priorities and lifestyle. That such a tiny creature can have such a large impact on a life seems impossible, and yet, as you read her words, somehow makes complete sense.
I love books about nature, and I also love animals. I have the urge to cuddle and pet them, but also a respect for their wild nature and a desire to leave them to do what they are meant to – run free, forage for food in a wild patch of forest and, eventually, return to it. Nature can be brutal, but it is also such a beautiful system with so much to teach us, if we only slow down long enough to pay attention. This book will show you what can happen if you let it into your life (and your home), and just how much you can gain from such an experience even (perhaps especially) if your aim was to give. This book is one of the best I’ve read this year, and one of my favourite nature books hands down. Definitely one I’d recommend, and I know I’ll be re-reading it many times in my future!
A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.
Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.
In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.
Raising Hare chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them. – Goodreads
Book Title: Raising Hare
Author: Chloe Dalton
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook (Audible)
Published By: Pantheon
Released: March 4, 2025
Genre: Non-Fiction, Nature, Animals, Memoir, Personal Growth, COVID-19 Pandemic
Pages: 285
Date Read: April 23 – May 3, 2025
Rating: 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.45/5 (6,630 ratings)
I have this book on my shelf waiting to be read. I love rabbits and hares and I am sort of nervous to start it! I am glad to see such a glowing review!