The Fox and the Hound is a 1967 novel by Daniel Pratt Mannix IV. It follows the lives of two protagonists pitted against each other: a half-bloodhound named Copper and a red fox named Tod. The novel is Mannix’s best-known work, and the Walt Disney Productions film The Fox and the Hound is based on the novel.

The book alternates between Copper and Tod’s point of view; of the ten chapters in the book, four are from Copper’s perspective and six are from Tod’s. Both of the animal protagonists are presented as reasonably intelligent if not on a level with humans, and the book constantly emphasizes the point that both are creatures that rely on their sense of smell as much as humans rely on sight, particularly Copper.

A young red fox kit is left orphaned when his mother is killed by a hunter and his baying Hounds. A kindly owl, named Big Mama, arranges him to be adopted by the compassionate Widow Tweed as a pet on her farm. Tweed names the fox Tod. Meanwhile, Tweed’s neighbor, an ill-tempered hunter named Amos Slade, brings home a young hound puppy named Copper. Slade introduces Copper to his experienced hunting dog Chief, who is rather uneasy to interact with the younger pup at first but later treats Copper as his own son.

Tod and Copper meet and form a friendship they feel will last forever. Slade grows frustrated after Copper is constantly caught wandering off to play

  Tod meeting Copper

with Tod. After several meetings between Tod and Copper, Slade places Copper on a leash to stop him from wandering off.

Undeterred, Tod decides to play with Copper at his home. Tod’s visit to Slade’s farm becomes disastrous when he inadvertently awakens Chief, who promptly chases him throughout the farm. Slade enters the pursuit as well, trying to shoot Tod. The pursuit finally ends after Slade begins shooting at Widow Tweed’s car, with Tod in tow. A furious Tweed takes Slade’s gun out of his hand and shoots his car’s radiator. After a fierce argument, the belligerent Slade makes it clear that he intends to kill Tod at his first opportunity.

For the rest of the summer Tod is limited to the house with Widow Tweed. The matter is shelved for the moment, with hunting season commencing, and Slade takes his dogs into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama explains to Tod that his friendship with Copper cannot continue, as they were bred to be enemies. Tod, in his innocence, states that he and Copper are “gonna be friends forever.”

Months pass, and Copper becomes an excellent hunting dog. Upon Copper’s return, Tod, who at the same time has become a handsome, full-grown, adult fox, meets him during the night, thinking their friendship unchanged. Copper explains that he is a hunting dog now, and that they can no longer be friends. Their meeting is cut short when Chief awakens and alerts Slade. A chase ensues, but Copper diverts Chief and Slade so that Tod can escape. Unfortunately, Chief manages to maintain the pursuit, which carries onto a railroad track trestle. When a fast-moving train suddenly approaches, Tod is able to duck under the vehicle, but Chief is struck and wounded. Enraged, Copper blames Tod for the accident and swears vengeance.

Realizing that Tod cannot safely stay on her farm now, Tweed leaves him at a nature preserve (without removing his collar), which has signs prohibiting hunting. Although Tod has a difficult time adjusting, Big Mama helps by introducing him to a young, beautiful vixen named Vixey. Tod first tries to impress Vixey by catching a fish, only to fail, causing Vixey and the other animals of the game reserve to laugh at him. Angry and hurt, Tod tells Vixey that she’s “a silly, empty-headed...female!” Angered, they refuse to speak to each other, but Big Mama intervenes with the song “Appreciate the Lady” and directs Tod in being himself, and Vixey to give him another chance. They get along very well once Tod admits his lack of survival skills. Vixey is now aware of his inability to survive in the wild and helps him adapt. This also seems to bring Vixey and Tod closer in a romantic light.

The vengeful Slade and Copper trespass into the preserve to kill Tod with leg-hold traps and guns. The result is a harrowing chase throughout the forest trying to catch Tod and Vixey that climaxes when Slade and Copper inadvertently provoke an attack from a disturbed bear. Slade gets off only a single shot before he trips and gets caught in one of his own leg-hold traps and his gun falls just out of his reach. Copper fights the bear but is nearly killed in a very vicious fight. Against his better judgment, Tod intervenes to save his friend. He fights the much larger bear and ends up luring the bear on to a fallen trunk that breaks and sends the two falling down a waterfall.

Tod survives and meets Copper at shore, who is stunned at Tod’s heroism for his sake in spite of current events. However, Slade does not share any gratitude and suddenly appears, still vindictively eager to kill the fox. Copper makes the moral decision of interposing his body in front of Tod, and Slade, reluctant to kill his own hound for a petty vendetta against a fox that had just saved their lives, is forced to give up and return home. The fox and hound share one final smile before going their separate ways and at the same time, Squeeks the caterpillar is turned into a butterfly while Dinky and Boomer are watching through Squeeks’ hole in order to eat it (throughout the film, Dinky and Boomer are always trying to eat Squeeks but are outsmarted by Squeeks every time).

In the final scene, as Copper rests in his dog house, he hears Tod’s voice of when they were young saying that they would be friends forever. He smiles at this, and falls asleep. The view then backs out to a small hill, where Vixey joins Tod, looking at both houses.