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If you spot a fox with a royal blue clog and two beige shoes, a woman in Molong would like them back
By Peter Holmes
Apparently the foxes are out and about in Molong, and they're in the frame when it comes to the theft of a pair of beige shoes and a royal blue gardening clog.
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A Molong resident posted to social media recently seeking the whereabouts of the shoes and the clog.
"My neighbour at the west end of Riddell Street has shoes going missing! Does anyone have a dog who might be collecting them from her verandah? Two beige shoes and a royal blue gardening clog so far. We can't think what else would be taking them."
It's a stretch to say the responses came in thick and fast, however what the comments lacked in number they made up for in quality.
"I know it sounds strange, but if it’s not an unrestrained dog, it can also be a fox," suggested one commenter.
"There are foxes in town [at the moment], have seen them on Molong Street Saturday at 5am.
"Grant Denyer also caught a fox taking his daughter’s sandals from his front step even though he has working dogs around."
It's true.
Last month Denyer, the Central West-based showbizzer, revealed he had worked out who had nicked a new sandal left outside his home. The guilty party? A sly fox.
"Found out who the shoe thief is!" Denyer wrote on social media. "Busted this little fox doing a snatch and grab of Sailor's new sandals.
"And here I was thinking food is their priority, not comfortable yet fashionable footwear."
Another commenter to the original post said she'd "had a fox take my and my kids' thongs before".
One said that it may not be a fox: "I had a German Shepherd that used to do this!" "Foxes will take your shoes," said another commenter, "happened to my brother."
In an interview with National Public Radio in the US last year, wildlife rehabilitator Elise Able said that foxes are attracted to "anything that they can sink their teeth into that's a little firm but a little squishy".
The national broadcaster was interviewing Able following thefts of sandals, work boots and other shoes in Japan, the UK and Germany - in the latter example a Berlin-based fox had collected about 100 shoes.
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"If they're going by on their rounds and there's something like a shoe sitting there, it might smell interesting and want to pick it up and take it home for the kids, take it home for the vixen that's watching those kids," said Able.
"Depending if it's leather, it might actually be a tasty treat, or it might just be an interesting thing for everybody to play with."
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