Chloe Dalton’s memoir “Raising Hare” will be the subject of the First Thursday Book Discussion on May 7 at the Columbia Public Library.
Dalton’s busy life as a political advisor and speech writer changed dramatically during the COVID lockdown when she moved from London to the English countryside. It was here that she came across a newborn hare, or leveret, that had been chased by dogs. Fearing for it, she brings it home.
She quickly learns that leverets are notoriously difficult to raise in captivity. Most perish from shock. Dalton must quickly become a de facto expert on hare care, leaning heavily on expertise from family members with a background in animal care, her own research and trial and error. What follows is not the typical rescue story. Dalton doesn’t name the hare. She is dedicated to letting the hare be a hare — not a pet — and only providing enough care and shelter to help it survive into adulthood. Yet, how could she not become attached to it, enchanted by it and fret at every new threshold the animal crosses on it’s way to living the life of a wild hare?
Dalton expertly writes about the fine line she treads, loving the wildness of an animal and caring for it but without taming or caging it. Instead she directs the impulse care and protect her charge into learning more about the wild hares of the world and being the best caretaker she can be, eventually taking it to it’s furthest and perhaps highest end — improving habitat for hares and other wild creatures.
Join Dalton’s journey learning from and about these extraordinary creatures by reading “Raising Hare.” Join community members at noon on May 7 at the Columbia Public Library to share in a discussion about hares, literature and the shared, but varied, experience of the COVID 19 pandemic.
