Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

Meeting Outside at Beer Thirty there are heating lamps but best to dress warm. I'll bring discussion questions and post them prior to meeting.

Here are the discussion questions:

Raising Hare Discussion Questions:

1. What did you think of Raising Hare? Did you find Raising Hare to be an emotional read? Did you chuckle at times, or find it sad, heartwarming, or adorable? Why, or why not?
2. How effective do you think Dalton was in her aim of keeping Hare wild?
3. Can animals ever be truly owned? Should they be?
4. Has this book made you feel differently about the concept of keeping animals as pets?
5. Dalton describes ‘a new spirit of attentiveness to nature’ as a result of being with Hare. Have you ever experienced something like this yourself? Did you relate to this feeling in the book from the Covid-19 lockdown?
6. What was your view about the ways Dalton talked about farming practices in her area, like hedge cutting, or the use of tractors? Did you agree, or do you have a different view?
7. Dalton says: ‘I had rediscovered the pleasure of attachment to a place and the contentment that can be derived from exploring it fully, rather than constantly seeking ways to leave it and believing that satisfaction can only lie in novel experiences.’ Do you think we are, as a society, too focused on ‘novel experiences’? Should we care for our immediate environments more?

This book is part of the Winter Reading Program from bookshop Santa Cruz.
About the book:

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.