Foxes with a shoe fetish!!

[darylp]

Having spoken to my sister, who lives locally to me, she has asked me about a certain problem she is having with the local foxes. There are numerous local urban foxes which for some reason have taken to chewing the velcro straps off of her and her step daughters riding boots. Furthermore yesterday she observed a fox running across the road with her neighbours football boot!!
I have to say i found this both hilarious and interesting (although my sister is less impressed with having to buy two new pairs of riding boots). Has anyone come across this behaviour before or know why they do this? My only thought is that they can smell the animal based glues used in the boot manufacture.

Still laughing D

[Jim Ford]

My wife had one of her winter boots taken from outside the back door last year! We assumed it was a fox. We left the other one out for it - it was no use to us - but it didn't go!

Jim

[aeshna5]

I used to regularly find gardener/builder type gloves which the Foxes found + played with + left in the garden.

[slimrbp]

Happened to me once as well, I left my Garden gloves out and one disappeared. A few days later it turned up again with distinct signs of having been buried

On a related note when I lived in Bermondsey South East London I used to work in the evenings and sometimes getting back late on a summer's evening my girlfriend and I would sit on an area of grass near our flat to relax. We would often be visited by a fox who got bolder each time and would approach our bikes which were lying on the ground and give the tyres a test bite.
It also became bold enough to so the same to the soles of our shoes!

[healfdan]

darylp

Oddly enough I found a ladies shoe, minus most of the strap and a portion of the side, only yesterday on a footpath in a residential area. When I lived in a very rural area it was deemed foolish to leave your wellies or work boots on the doorstep as Foxy would most likely carry one off. I wore a pair of my favourite hiking boots for a couple of years with one boot minus the tongue. At least the fox was decent enough to leave the boot in the garden after its nightime raid.

Healfdan

[darylp]

Well im glad its not just my local foxes with a strange fetish. I am just waiting to hear what they will do next. Over the last 2 years the local council has replaced all dustbins with wheely bins, which as off yet, the foxes have not been able to crack. This has led to increasingly bold behaviour on there part in the search for food. However, shoes and gloves is a desperate menu choice, especially my sisters!!

D

[Words]

It's very common, and international!