Fox and I

May 31, 2021
Biologist Raven (Forestry) reflects on her relationship with a red fox in her offbeat and charming memoir. After fleeing the abusive household she grew up in, Raven started college at age 16 and worked as a park ranger in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park before earning her doctorate in biology in 1999. Upon graduating, she bought herself a remote parcel of land in Montana and landed a gig teaching classes for the University of Montana Western in Yellowstone National Park. Around this time, a red fox began appearing near her cottage at the same time every afternoon. And so, she writes, “the necessity of entertaining a visitor at 4:15 p.m. each afternoon left me no choice but to read.” For “fifteen consecutive days,” she read Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince to the fox, and the two formed an unusual bond, spending days together hiking through the forest and carrying on imagined conversations. Along with reverently describing her furry friend—who had a “face so innocent that you would have concluded that he never stalked a bluebird, let alone dismembered one”—Raven writes poetically about the flora (“my sun-worshipping tenants”) and fauna around her. Rich and meditative, Raven’s musings on nature and solitude are delightful company.

August 27, 2021

In this lyrical debut memoir, biologist and former park ranger Raven explores her relationship with a wild fox born near her remote cabin in Montana. After buying property and building a cabin there, she encountered a scrawny male fox, who seemed to be unafraid of her; soon the fox (whom she calls Fox here) was rendezvousing with Raven at 4:15 pm each afternoon. The two develop a friendship as they share their lives--a relationship that the author considers to be her first real friendship. Because biologists tend to disdain anthropomorphism, Raven was initially reluctant to share the particulars of this friendship with peers, but she ultimately does so with this memoir. It is beautifully descriptive, with details about the natural history of Montana and fox biology. Raven brings to life the foxes (and other animals and plants she discusses) as she weaves in concepts from Melville's Moby Dick and Saint-Exup�ry's The Little Prince. Her evocative descriptions also relay the vivid scenery in and around her cabin. VERDICT A beautiful exploration of a human/wild animal relationship that intertwines Raven's musings about her past, present, and future into a mostly factual, at times imagined, whole that will appeal to readers who enjoy natural history essays, memoirs, foxes, the American West, or stories about women discovering themselves.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2021
The touching memoir of a biologist who befriended a fox in the wilderness. Raven fled an abusive home at age 15, entering college at 16. Following her passion, she moved to the mountains of Montana, where she worked as a park ranger before earning her doctorate in biology. She built a small cottage in a valley and began leading a solitary life, working for the National Park Service and teaching classes online and in the field. According to the author, she never felt lonely, but she did long to fit in somewhere. One day, she noticed that a fox would show up outside her cottage at the same time each day. Based on her academic training and professional experiences, she had always avoided humanizing wild animals. However, something was special about this fox, and the two soon developed a bond. At first, Raven felt the need to defend their relationship to her colleagues and students, fielding their frequent and targeted questions. She also continually pondered relocating to a city where she could obtain a good-paying academic job with health insurance. But the more time she and the fox spent with each other, the more the author learned about herself and was able to let go of many of the conventional ideas that had been ingrained in her mind by society. With a scientific depth of examination accompanied by lyrical language, Raven explores the development of the bond between the fox and herself as well as the natural habitat surrounding her home, including the responsibilities of landownership. She also includes relevant references from literature that have inspired her views (she also read passages out loud to the fox). As the author charmingly explains, their relationship continued to grow deeper, providing her with a sense of purpose--until a natural tragedy struck her remote area of wilderness, forever altering the trajectory of her life. A heartfelt meditation on the power of nature and a touching homage to a beloved wild friend.

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June 1, 2021
Against all odds, and over several months, a solitary-by-nature biologist and a wild red fox create a relationship. Raven decamped from her childhood home at 15 to escape her violent father and indifferent mother, then started college at 16. Years of rangering in national parks and obtaining a PhD brought her to a cabin on the front range of the Rockies, supported by part-time teaching jobs, and Fox. This quietly poetic memoir describes the somewhat meandering paths that Raven and Fox, a yearling male and the runt of the litter, traversed to achieve their unusual partnership. Alternating between her story and her observations, she recounts Fox's days of caching voles and avoiding dogs and older foxes and sunbathing on her gravel driveway. She also tells of explaining their relationship to skeptical students who are convinced she is anthropomorphizing the human/fox confluence. In time, Raven and Fox establish a pattern, meeting every day at 4:15, when she reads aloud to her attentive companion from Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry's The Little Prince. A soulful and indelible exploration of an interspecies friendship.

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