Raising Hare — Comprehensive Study Notes

Context and Opening Ideas

The narrator begins with a literary epigraph about hares from The Poacher's Handbook (1950) to frame a wild animal encounter within a domestic setting.
A leveret (young hare) nests in grass; the narrator’s sister provides a powdered kitten milk and a small bottle, advertised as suitable for kittens, puppies, rabbits, and hedgehogs but not explicitly for hares, highlighting uncertainty in care.
The narrator’s initial anxiety is palpable: downstairs in the early morning, the leveret sits beside its nest with ears upright, ready for the world.
The leveret’s survival and milk-feeding become a focal point, bridging wild nature and a bespoke caregiving experiment.

Setting: The Barn, Land, and Renovation

The narrator’s home is a low, stone barn located where three fields meet, with a wood directly behind it. The landscape is open yet undulating, with hidden folds, steep banks, ditches, and waterlogged turf.
The land is farmed by different families; trees are sparse except for the wood and distant oaks along hedgerows.
The barn’s original purpose: sorting sheep, storing hay, and sheltering lambs; architecturally it is a three-sided horseshoe enclosing a sheepfold for driving and penning animals.
The narrator bought a ruined structure as a fallback project due to career volatility; the barn was initially choked with nettles, fallen beams, and winds sweeping through the valley—the reconstruction involved insulating and rebuilding walls, rafters, trusses, and tiling.
Years later, the space becomes a single-storey home with a small upstairs bedroom on one flank, oriented to the valley and prevailing winds.
An inner garden sits outside the house, enclosed by the old wall and surrounded by reclaimed rough field, with drystone walls, rabbit-proof fencing, and a hedge to reduce wind.

Leveret Care: Early Rearing and Feeding Protocols

After surviving the night, the leveret is moved to a spare bedroom with an exit to the enclosed garden for safe in/out access.
A hare-protection site provides care guidance: in the wild, leverets are fed by mothers once daily; in captivity, the narrator should feed three times a day to maximize milk intake, though this requires careful handling.
Leverets have curved incisors on both upper and lower jaws (two incisors each), forming a barrier when jaws are closed. If frightened, the leveret may clamp shut and refuse milk, risking starvation.
Feeding technique: place the bottle at the corner of the leveret’s lower lip; minimize noise and handling to reduce stress—the leading cause of death in captivity is stress.
There are risks of milk choking and aspiration pneumonia; the weaning target is after about eight weeks (≈ 8\text{ weeks}).
After weaning, release back into nature; during captivity, keep the environment tranquil and limit touch to one person.
The leveret’s sensory world is emphasized: the narrator tunes to landscape sounds—the wind, birds, water, and the absence of human home noise.

Anatomy, Camouflage, and Observations of Coloration

The leveret’s coat initially appears deep brown, akin to wet earth, but features agouti colouring: alternating bands of pigmentation along individual hairs for camouflage via natural selection.
Distinctive markings include a pale fur ring around the eyes with a kohI-black band, a soft grey throat, ivory muzzle, darkest grey nostrils, brindled back, and a tabby-like brindling of fur.
Ears: narrow at the root, widening to a broad oval before a slanted tip; ears are covered in fur so dark it reads as ink-dipped.
Paws: white-tipped; the soles are furry and warm, described as the ancient Greek name for a hare meaning “shaggy foot” for the base of each paw.
When seen from behind, the leveret looks like it is wearing pale cashmere socks on its hind feet; toes are four digits, longer than a cat’s paw, with bones and joints becoming pronounced as it grows.
Tail: not a round fluffy rabbit tail but a long, movable stub that can flick side-to-side or tuck under.
Handling caveats: don’t overly stroke the animal; wild ancestry means it may not enjoy domestication or explicit handling beyond feeding and necessary transport.
The narrator notes a critical tension: keeping the leveret close to human contact risks dulling instinct and increasing dependence, potentially compromising survival in the wild.
A small grooming routine is introduced: a tiny antique hairbrush is used to clean dried milk from under the chin, preventing health issues.

Early Development and Behavior in the Household

The leveret’s energy is displayed when placed down: it runs around, climbs over legs, and has a taut, distended abdomen from feeding.
Observations reveal the leveret’s cleanliness and scentlessness, attributable to a careful feeding and grooming routine.
The observer notes that the leveret will delay daylight movement, mirroring wild leveret behavior that remains in the nest during daylight hours in early life.
The narrator learns about agouti coloration as camouflage is essential for survival and predator avoidance.
The leveret begins to vocalize softly (chit-chit-chit) during exploration, a sign of relaxation rather than stress.
The narrator engineers a balance: gentle handling during feeding, silent entry, and consistent soothing language to avoid startling the leveret.
The leveret’s physical growth includes rapid ear and paw development; the forelimbs grow proportionally to keep pace with the body’s development.

Transition to Independent Housing: The Pen and Its Problems

Following advice from the online care guide, the narrator constructs a pen (long, wide) with open top and translucent plastic sides, and lines the base with a sheet, towels, and a hay-filled shoebox in the center.
A water bowl, salt block, and branches for gnawing are included to support dental health—the hare’s teeth grow continuously; without proper gnawing, health risks arise.
For several days, the leveret adjusts; morning visits show large urine pools and many droppings on the sheet, signaling distress or discomfort in the new pen.
A sudden change occurs: the urine becomes red, prompting the narrator to abandon the pen and return the leveret to the floor with open access to the rest of the house and garden.
With freedom, the leveret’s behavior shifts: it stops leaving indoor droppings, and it migrates toward the narrator’s end of the house, including the living room and home office.
The leveret learns to navigate the house by jumping between covered surfaces to avoid slippery floors, aided by cushions arranged as stepping stones to reach the office.
The leveret eventually climbs the staircase to the narrator’s bedroom and sleeps under the bed, reflecting a surprising degree of domestication and curiosity about human spaces.
The narrator worries about over-domestication and potential loss of wild survival instincts but also grows fond of the daily companionship in the home.
The leveret’s nocturnal and diurnal patterns begin to blend: it is fed in the kitchen at dusk, then follows the narrator to the sitting room, where it rests on a windowsill while the narrator reads.
The leveret begins visiting the bedroom at night, indicating a desire to stay near the human, challenging the hare’s solitary stereotype.
The narrator notes that the leveret’s calm demeanor contrasts with a life previously defined by vigilance, unpredictability, and stress.

Growth, Senses, and Perceptual Shifts

The leveret’s growth is rapid: ears and paws enlarge quickly; by weaning (≈ 30\text{ days}), leverets are more than 8\times heavier than at birth.
The hind foot length can reach about 6\text{ inches} as it matures.
At feeding, the leveret shifts from passive palm-holding to resting in the narrator’s lap, with the stomach along the legs and the tail at rest; droplets of milk may run down the chin and soak the narrator’s trousers, yet the fur repels the milk from the chest.
The leveret’s eyes transition from inky black to a pale iris with a darker outer ring; over roughly a month, amber coloration develops, and each eyelid gains thick black fur rims with pale hair around the iris.
The leveret’s field of vision is wide due to lateral eye placement, allowing a head-on V-shaped view of the face with a crest of longer fur on the forehead; the animal can turn one eye toward the observer while still facing away, giving a sense of watchful engagement.
The narrator reflects on the sense that the leveret “allowed” him into its space, highlighting a reciprocal trust.

The Mother Hare’s Return, Breeding, and the Discovery of Leverets

By late April, the leveret is over two years old; the hare, having slept on a pale moss circle in the long grass for two nights, exhibits an uncanny stillness that resembles a ritual or ritualized behavior.
The hare has previously given birth the previous year and has now delivered a new pair of leverets, completing a second birth in the current year.
The narrator discovers a second litter by peering behind a curtain; the two new leverets have no white forehead markings, unlike the narrator’s earlier perception of leveret marks as a constant sign of litters.
The discovery reveals the hare’s prolific breeding: a doe hare averages about 8\text{ leverets per year}, a rate that persists across multiple years if the hare remains alive; this particular individual has already produced two sets in the present timeline (the prior summer’s three and the new spring pair).
The mother’s behavior remains protective and secretive, feeding and relocating the offspring with deliberate care; she returns to feed and protect them while the narrator contends with the extraordinary trust she places in him.
The narrator recognizes the mother has chosen to nurse her young in absolute secrecy and silence, illustrating an extraordinary level of trust toward a human caretaker.

Deformity, Risk, and Trust in Nature

A crucial turning point: one leveret develops deformed hind legs, with the back paws extended unnaturally; the narrator worries about running and mobility, but ultimately decides to rely on nature’s course rather than human intervention.
The mother returns to feed the leverets after the narrator’s attempts to examine the deformity, demonstrating an instinct for maternal care despite potential risks to human involvement.
The narrator tussles with the idea of stepping in to help the impaired leveret, weighing the potential disruption to natural adaptation against emotional attachment and the leveret’s survival prospects.
The mother communicates with the narrator through a gentle pat on the thigh after feeding, a sound and gesture whose meaning remains elusive and is not readily described by external animal behavior literature.

Nighttime Feeding Patterns and the Human-Animal Bond

The leverets are fed at three nighttime intervals: at approximately 22:00 (10 PM), 02:00 (2 AM), and 05:00 (5 AM), which is more frequent than the literature suggests for wild doe nursing (some sources say once per 24 hours after sunset).
The mother hare enters the office, covering the leverets with her body as they feed, and then leaves; on some nights, a leveret falls or becomes temporarily stuck on a stair-step, prompting maternal intervention.
The mother’s protective behavior includes guarding the leverets on the steps and listening for danger; she even pushes a fallen leveret back onto the carpet when the human caregiver intervenes, highlighting interspecies cooperative dynamics.
Night after night, the leverets’ strength improves; the smaller leveret remains more energetic, while the larger leveret sometimes tires more quickly, revealing individual developmental variability.
The narrator constructs a low barrier of cushions to slow a potential escape attempt and to protect the leverets while they grow.
The mother eventually leads the family toward the door and out to the garden, suggesting a gradual transition toward wild living, while still featuring a strong human presence and monitoring through windows and routine.

Reflections on the Human-Animal Boundary and Ethical Implications

The memoir frames a nuanced ethical debate: to intervene or observe; to shelter a wild animal in a human home or to preserve its wildness for survival after release.
The narrator acknowledges that hares are not domesticated animals bred for appearance or temperament, and that domestication could dull survival instincts critical to life in the wild.
The central ethical question is: what is the appropriate balance between care, curiosity, and respect for wild behavior when humans inhabit the same space as wild offspring?
The repeated motif of ultimate trust underscores the fragility and strength of the bond formed between human and hare, and whether such trust can and should endure beyond the leveret’s growth and reintroduction to nature.

Real-World Relevance, Metaphor, and Thematic Connections

The memoir juxtaposes a modern, urban professional life against a deeply embedded, ancient instinctual world of wild hares; the leveret becomes a mirror for human need for quiet, steadiness, and subtle companionship.
It raises questions about stewardship, the ethics of wildlife rescue, and the responsibilities we incur when we choose to care for wild animals in human domains.
The text engages with broader themes of resilience, adaptability, and the tension between civilization and nature—how much we shape, and how much we should resist, when interacting with wild life.

Key Numerical and Quantitative Details (for quick reference)

Landscape features and geography:
- Three fields meet at the narrator’s location: 3 fields.
- A wood lies directly behind the barn; the landscape is open but undulating with hidden folds and ditches.
Leveret care and growth:
- Milk feeding in early life described as approximately 1\ \text{teaspoon} per feeding, with multiple feedings per day.
- Initial care uses a 2\text{ oz} bottle, as noted on the milk packet.
- Weaning occurs after roughly 30\text{ days}; at weaning, leverets weigh more than 8\times their birth weight.
- Hind foot length at maturity can reach 6\text{ inches}.
- By about 8\text{ weeks}, the leveret’s growth accelerates, with rapid ear and paw development.
- The hare’s yearly fertility estimate: on average 8\text{ leverets per year}.
Experimental housing and behavior:
- A pen was built with open top and translucent sides; later abandoned due to stress indicators (red urine) and indoor droppings.
Nighttime feeding schedule:
- Feeding times observed at 22:00, 02:00, and 05:00.
Lifespan and age markers:
- The mother hare is described as “just over 2\text{ years} old” during the birth of the observed leverets.
Observational benchmarks:
- The leveret’s eyes shift from black to a pale iris over roughly one month; a thick black rim around each eyelid develops with pale surrounding hair.
- The body shows a distinct color shift with cream-colored flanks and chest by spring, while the back and ears retain darker fur; whiskers become longer and white at the roots, shading to black outward.

Summary of Thematic Takeaways

The memoir offers a granular, intimate glimpse into the life of a leveret raised temporarily in a human home, balancing scientific observation (camouflage, growth, anatomy) with ethical contemplation (humans as temporary stewards, the risk of domestication, and the wild’s resilience).
It foregrounds the idea of trust as a two-way street: the hare trusts the human to provide safety and sustenance, while the human learns to trust the animal’s instincts and growth toward independence.
The narrative invites readers to reflect on how we define “care” for wild creatures: whether it is possible or desirable to intervene, and what responsibilities arise when wild and human habitats overlap.

Appendix: Notable Quotes and References

The text situates scientific facts about hare biology (agouti coloration, dentition, limb anatomy) within a personal, experiential frame, emphasizing observation over intervention unless necessary for welfare.
The recurring section header Ultimate Trust frames the evolving bond as a central theme: trust is earned through careful observation, restraint, and respect for the animal’s autonomy.