In “Penelope: A Love Story,” Paul Bochner chronicles what he calls “one of the greatest loves I have ever known,” a relationship that brings him “an inexpressible joy.” He and Penelope “are soulmates,” he writes.

It’s not what you think: Penelope is the name Bochner gives a white-tailed deer that was born in a wooded area beside his house in New York’s Hudson Valley. Bochner first encounters the newborn fawn in June 2014. When he next observes her a few weeks later, her leg is badly injured and she has been abandoned by her mother.

Bochner assumes that the mother has rejected her unhealthy offspring to avoid slowing down the herd and drawing predators. He further assumes that the fawn will not survive the winter. In March 2015, however, the deer, frail and emaciated, reappears outside of his home. Bochner places apple pieces on the ground between them and speaks soothingly to her.…