These sections are skillfully done-they are given in frequent, short bursts throughout, never stretching on longer than necessary and persistently written in methodical and often insightful prose. The third and most daring of the three, is a third person limited point of view that follows Fox around, pushing the “I” of the narrative to the periphery of the story. The second details her life leading up to Fox. The first recounts her friendship with Fox, from her perspective. On a structural level, Raven splits her story into three interwoven parts. They always feel earned and are always written in a lush, elegant style. And empathy, I am convinced, is the gateway to friendship.” Raven’s prose is at its best in moments like this, where she pauses to reflect and extrapolates her experience into a general sentiment.
She writes: “The more I watched him, the more I understood him and appreciated his ease of living insight become empathy. By treating Fox as a friend instead of reducing “him to data points,” Raven gets to know him as an individual creature. All these scenes work in the narrative to build a sense camaraderie between Raven and Fox collectively, they stand as a testament for the meaning and beauty in the small and seemingly insignificant moments in life. He leads her around the area, and at one point kills a mouse and gives it to her as a gift after he realizes she is not nearly agile enough to catch one herself. Raven hunts, lounges, and plays hide-and-seek with Fox. That is, until the fox, whom she calls Fox, shows up, and starts to change her life.Īs with any friendship, Fox and Raven’s is cultivated by sharing in each other’s interests. Socially awkward and on her own since the age of fifteen, she has become content with living a life of solitude. Indeed, besides the people she meets during the field tours she leads in Yellow Stone National Park and the students in her online classes she teaches to sustain herself, she does not seem to have any meaningful relationships. Raven, a biologist and former Park Ranger, builds herself a cabin as far outside of society as one can reasonable get, presumably to escape people. This unique situation serves as a catalyst for Catherine Raven’s memoir Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship in which she tells the story of her short lived but impactful friendship with a wild fox that visits her home in the largely uninhabited Montana wild. What do you do? Do you scare it off, or call animal control? Now what if that fox were come back to your yard every day, at the exact same time? A fox with fur the color of fire, swiftly paces around in your backyard, looking for food or maybe just a place to sit.
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