Foxes stealing shoes from back garden

[kels]

I'm not going mad, believe me! We have lost 2 pairs of mud-caked football boots from our back garden. I believe it is a fox, as I have picked up several times, my husbands work boots in the morning (from the middle of the back garden) and after he had neatly left them on the back deck.

We lost one pair of football boots and then today another went.

If anyone happens to find 2 random pairs of football boots (potentially half chewed in their gardens, pleases let me know). I have one very unhappy 7 year old. One pair were a Christmas present.

Description:

Size 1 Nike mercurial (flouro yellow/ green)

Size 1 Addidas purple and orange in colour (both last seen on our back deck).

[The Minkey]

How annoying. They do like playing with things we'd rather they didn't, and you can expect more of the same once those cubs start exploring the world. Moving forward, outdoors shoe storage might be a good use for a redundant recycling box. Good luck finding the missing shoes.

[Gidget]

Has happened to me. No longer leave anything outside I am worried about. I regularly find flowerpots all over the lawn in the morning now.

[Rosie Posy]

If you do find them they are likely to be chewed up, foxes love shoes, footie boots etc. We have (or rather my son has) lost the odd one or two over the years, they are as bad as teething puppies!

[mikeb]

footballs, tennis balls, trainers, plants, and the poo. Fantastic Mr Fox he ain't.

[colville09]

A few summers ago I had bought many pairs of shoes into the kitchen ready for a mass clean. It was only sometime later I realised that only one or two odd shoes remained. I too thought I had gone a bit crazy until I started to find them chewed up in various parts of the garden. In fact, odd ones still appear on the lawn even now. Cheeky fox had sneaked in through the open door and must spent the time coming and going to snatch and collect his pile of new toys. They cost me a fortune to replace but even worse is the look of 'the poor old thing is losing it' when I tell visitors not to leave their shoes too near the back door because of foxy activity. It helped me to make sense of the ominous lone shoes you sometimes walk past on the street, they are not the result of some evil abduction or a human tragedy but merely a dropped chewie.

[pommie]

yeah we used to see lots of odd shoes/socks etc in next doors garden where the foxes had nicked them and carried them away

[TheWinglessBird]

Foxes will play with just about anything you leave out in your garden. It is a good thing to place everything you don't want inside your house into a shed.

[kels]

Wow! Thanks for all your replies. My hubby now believes me!!! He thought I was making it up. And I thought I was, until this morning when the boots that were popped outside for cleaning, were not be seen the following morning! Damn that Mr Fox! He's got high standards when it comes to "chewy's"

[Undisputedtruth]

kels Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> We lost one pair of football boots and then today

> another went.

>

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, always wanted a Fox in the box!

[SteveUK1978]

Cunning Mr Fox broke into our bike tent and ate through the strap of my g/f's bike helmet.

[northlondoner]

Bizarrely, saw a fox trotting through Tulse Hill with a lady's shoe in its mouth early one evening last year.

[a_m]

My husband inadvertently left a pair of shoes just outside by our back door one night last summer. In the morning, one had disappeared, and we eventually put it down to foxes. Several months later I woke up one morning to see the self same shoe almost placed bang in the middle of our garden. Went down there to find that the fox had also left a big fox poo right on top of it. Couldn't help feeling the foxes were having a laugh at us!

[pommie]

we used to get baby foxes coming into our cat flap to eat the cat food. One night they decided my leather coat looked tasty and decided to rip/tear it to shreds. Was not impressed!

[thenjericho]

Just found a dead fox in my back garden. Wearing a Manchester United top. No boots though I am afraid.

[pommie]

thenjericho

well what do you expect? Its wearing a man united top, that would kill most things!! ha ha

[conrad.j.mustard]

i agree!

[fazer71]

http://www.thelocal.de/articleImages/27125.jpg

They Sh6T on everything too.

Filthy animals there are (nutters) neighbours feeding them too!

Vermin.

Watch the Barbie too.

http://www.tcnj.edu/~hofmann/humor/Misc/animals/fox_stealing.jpeg

[rlhumphreys]

Sorry to hear about you being out-foxed for your shoes kels.

I am a broadcast journalism student and would love it if anyone who has lost belongings to a fox or has had property damaged by them to allow me to conduct a very short radio interview with them tomorrow (Wednesday 1st)i'm doing a piece on foxes in South London-sounds bizarre but would love it if any of you had a spare five minutes! Can also meet wherever conveneient.

Fox also took one of my shoes-I almost wish it had taken both because they're useless if you have one, or none!

[charles26]

Well the foxes stole our rabbit and I must say, i really wish they'd taken some shoes instead!

[snowwhite]

I had a new pair of nike running shoes (caked in mud) stolen from outside my front door the monday before last... they were a christmas present from my 2 little boys.... would a fox really take a pair?!!

[peterstorm1985]

snowwhite Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I had a new pair of nike running shoes (caked in

> mud) stolen from outside my front door the monday

> before last... they were a christmas present from

> my 2 little boys.... would a fox really take a

> pair?!!

Yes. They particularly like running shoes, or anything else with a high level of human scent.

[susan_]

Hmmm, the foxes haven't stolen anything from me but they do regularly leave me things, most commonly single gardening gloves. I've had six single gloves delivered to the back garden in three years. I assume someone in my neighbourhood is puzzled by the repeated disappearance of their gloves.

[civilservant]

who're you calling a thief?

[Sue]

Lovely picture!