Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship

Can a person and a fox become friends? Before listening to this book I wouldn't have thought so but Catherine Raven makes a compelling case for interspecies friendship.

Catherine Raven has a Ph. D. in biology and before attaining that she worked as a park ranger in numerous western USA parks. So she's seen a lot of wildlife and studied them systematically. During the events detailed in this book she was living on a remote piece of land in Montana in a small two story cottage. She was teaching classes remotely and also leading groups in nearby Yellowstone National Park. She thought this would just be a temporary home as she expected to land a "real" job teaching in some post-secondary institution. As she was sitting in her little cabin show more she suddenly realized that one fox showed up every day at 4:15 pm. She started taking a little camp chair out to sit near him. For something to do she picked up her copy of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and read out loud to the fox. Initially she thought she could do a scientific treatise on him but she came to feel that they were friends and it felt wrong to study a friend. As they continued to spend time together Raven felt she was learning much from the fox about her surroundings. And she discovered a universal truth "You are never alone when you are connected to the natural world". I think this would be a good book to have a hard copy of so that one could pick it up and check out some of the nuggets of wisdom.

Raven is obviously an intelligent woman and a book lover. In addition to The Little Prince she often refers to Moby Dick. I loved The Little Prince but I admit I struggled with Moby Dick. After hearing Fox and I though I am tempted to go back to read it. show less

I can relate to Catherine Raven in many ways. I understand what it’s like to feel inept at social relationships and appreciate nature’s beauty. But our similarities end there. She’s brave, independent, and open in ways I can’t imagine. Adjusting to her writing style may take a while, but it’s worth it.

In Fox and I, Raven recounts how, after acquiring a Ph.D. in biology and buying a small plot of land far from the nearest town, she set up a private wilderness camp in a small cottage she had built there. Her life up to that point is impressive enough to me. After a neglected childhood, she left home at 15 and never returned after age 16. Instead, she headed west and began working odd jobs, winding up as a backcountry ranger in show more several national parks.

Her life, though busy and challenging, was also lonely. But while she was living on her plot of land, attempting to manage it responsibly that honored the other creatures living there, she began to receive visits from a scrawny, local fox. After they became comfortable in one another’s company, she began reading to him, providing him with homemade remedies for mange, taking walks, and playing games together.

While this may sound like something out of a fairytale, it wasn’t. Raven worried about her wild friend’s health and suffered when she was away from him for too long. She also regretted hurting his feelings on occasion. And she worried about how her relationship with a wild creature would be perceived by her students and peers in the scientific community.

I became immersed in her world as she weaved the verbal cocoon around her story. It wasn’t a cozy world, and Raven sugarcoats none of it. She tells you initially that she knew the relationship would be brief. But, in the end, you join her in awe at the natural world. You see life and death for what they are, tiny fragments of an incredible whole. And you find yourself questioning what matters in the end. It was a beautiful book I would recommend to anyone who loves animals and nature. show less

This book is unlike any book that I've ever read but I was mesmerized with the beautiful writing from the first page. This book is a memoir written by Catherine Raven who is a biologist and former Glacier National Park ranger. It's a book about loneliness, beauty in nature and an unusual friendship between the author and a fox at her home in Montana. Her small cottage is in an isolated area and she is isolated both physically and emotionally from the people in her life. As we learn more about her friendship with nature, we also learn about her life - that she had an abusive father who told her that she would never amount to anything, and a life mostly cut off from other people. She taught remotely and led nature walks in Yellowstone show more Park and was basically trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She began to notice that a fox showed up on her property every day at 4:15 so she began to go out and talk to it and read The Little Prince. She had not only a strange friendship with the fox, who became very important in her life but she also learned that we can no longer be lonely when connected to the real world.

This is a book about learning to accept life by connecting with nature. The writing was beautiful - not only the descriptions of the author's life but more importantly the writing about nature around her - the plants and the animals in her little corner of the world. This is not a book that I'll soon forget. show less

This is a very unique book. Indeed Catherine Raven is a very unique individual. Here she tells a lot about herself by documenting her two-year-relationship with a fox that lives on her property in Montana. Raven lives alone in a cottage on a remote plot of arid land; she's obtained a degree or two, served as a park ranger, and taught college, but doesn't know what to do next with her life. When a fox starts visiting her at her cottage, she starts reading to him; she names him "Fox", and rendezvous with him regularly at the same time and place.

When I say she lives alone, I mean without others of her species. Her other friend is a magpie. As I said, Raven is a unique individual. I admired and envied her closeness to the land she chose to show more call home. I grew to love Fox as she did. I love how she tells us her life situation without self-pity and with directness, and I love the conclusions she came to over the course of the two years she knew Fox. While at times this book felt a little repetitive and confusing, given the poetic way Raven would skip back in time sometimes to retell a scene in a different way, I would not say I was ever bored.

The central question for Raven was: was she "anthropomorphizing" Fox, and was she within her rights to say that he was her friend? If she had tamed him, or if he had been a domesticated animal, nobody would laugh at her attributing humanoid characteristics to him, or naming him, or saying he was her friend. Why is it different with a wild fox?

Quotes:

"I tried lashing myself to the land, but it wasn't reciprocating."

"The American student sits long enough to rival the most sessile organism ever to evolve on planet Earth."

"Each [elk] cow was searching for her perfect partner, and despite years of research, no scientist has ever been able to discover the criteria that females use when choosing mates. Maybe it's because each cow chose for herself alone, the one bull that would most displease her mother."

"On days when I worried over a pile of applications for university jobs that I didn't want but should have been applying for anyway, I remembered I owned land in a high-altitude desert where tiny five-headed ball cactuses bloomed in the shadow of snow-capped mountains, and I stopped worrying." I would too. show less

Book on CD narrated by Stacey Glemboski

Subtitle: An Uncommon Friendship

From the book jacket: When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m.

My reactions
I loved this memoir. Raven had some issues and talking to Fox helped show more her sort through where she had been, where she was, and where she was going. I loved that she chose to read The Little Prince aloud to Fox, drawing comparisons between her own situation and that the Little Prince (and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry). And isn’t this what friendship is all about?

I loved how she approached nature, the way she observed and absorbed the beauty and wonder of the various life forms around her. And I appreciated the information she imparted about voles, birds, trees, deer, dogs and, of course, foxes.

Stacey Glemboski does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook, but I did find myself going back and reading several chapters in text. I think I like the reading experience better than listening for this work. show less

I completed this book, which is about a quirky scientist and outdoorswoman, who befriends a fox on her plot of land. She relates to Fox in a number of ways, including reading to him from [The Little Prince]. Per Raven: “Saint-Exupéry said that explaining things to people who were never going to understand was exhausting. So he just ignored people.”

She had considered herself a loner, and the Fox friendship moves her to expand her connection to others. I liked this book, though definitely not for everyone. (don't read if you can't handle any violence to animals. Though that's not a prominent part of the book).

Otherwise, if you like books about nature, and about relationships between humans and other animals; this is a gem.

I REALLY wanted to love this memoir, it has been on my TBR for years, but I just didn't connect. Raven is a biologist who has isolated herself in a cabin in Montana. She had a very poor childhood, and was verbally abused by her father. So, she feels that she never really had friends or a loving family. She begins an unlikely friendship with a fox, reading to him from The Little Prince daily. The fox seems to watch and listen, but obviously, can't speak to her. When wildfires come to the area, she is concerned about the wildlife and makes her way to escape. She reflects on the fact that foxes will take many years to learn to trust humans, and although she fed the fox and read to it daily, they were truly two different species. If you show more like wildlife and nature, you may enjoy this, but it wasn't for me. I am sure I am the anomaly since this received many accolades. show less