One day a little wet fox calls at a cottage deep in the sagebrush hills of Montana. He visits the next day too, and the next.

He lolls across his favourite rock, nuzzling a forget-me-not and listening to Catherine Raven read from The Little Prince. He likes attention, parades impressive kills. He collects things. He decorates. He likes this, he likes that. He has hobbies.

Wait a minute. Is it possible for a wild animal to have hobbies? Is it possible to befriend and be befriended by a wild animal?

Dr Catherine Raven is a biologist living with a black widow spider 60 miles from the nearest city. She teaches online ecology classes and writes school textbooks. She’s a scientist: logical and observant. But what she’s observing is that this particular wild animal has personality. And if he does, do they all?

For several weeks in the late afternoon, birds of many different species were landing in one of the four junipers, while leaving the other three almost unoccupied. They selected different trees each day, but without any predictable pattern. What intrigued me wasn’t the process of choosing, but the act of sharing. Instead of segregating themselves, birds of different species were roosting together. (92)

Fox and I is the account of two neighbours - a woman and a fox - and their relationship with the wildlife and land around. Raven discusses foxhunting, land management, the tactical introduction of mange, zoos, Frankenstein, Moby-Dick, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s books The Little Prince and Wind, Sand and Stars. She describes the local flora and fauna, and her experience as a park ranger, firefighter, and teacher.

The habits and habitats of modern life are simply not evolutionarily stable. Metal and plastic. Electric lights blotting out stars. Ten-story buildings blocking sun and moon. Cars honking and everything else ringing, beeping, and buzzing until we can’t even hear aspen leaves quaking. (203)

Raven’s writing is eloquent, thought-provoking, intelligent, and funny. Unusually, the narrative occasionally shifts to represent the fox’s or magpie’s point of view - a blurring of science and imagination.

From being a little wet fox on the doorstep, Fox becomes one of the defining features of Raven’s life. His nuzzling of the forget-me-not is surely a message to her.

A highly-enjoyable, beautifully-written memoir.

By the way, Dr Raven - when packing a rucksack, choosing a book based on size and weight is totally on plan!

Published by Spiegel & Grau, Catherine Raven’s Fox and I will be on sale this July.

Many thanks to Catherine Raven, Spiegel & Grau, and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

WHAT TO READ NEXT:

Christiane Ritter’s exceptional account of a year in the Arctic: A Woman in the Polar Night