Has it happened to you?

This weekend we went camping in a friend's backyard and my daughter wanted to put her shoes in the tent to keep them safe. I told her not to worry, they'd be just fine under the vestibule. She puts then in the vestibule and we go to sleep.

Middle of the night and I wake up to what I assume is my daughter tossing in her sleep and kicking my feet. She wakes up too and has to go to the bathroom so we fumble around for our shoes but she can only find one of hers. It's dark and I'm tired so I just give her my shoes and I walk to the house in my socks.

Come morning we look for her shoe again and it's nowhere to be found. Not in the vestibule, not in the tent, not under the tent, nowhere in the yard. Just gone.

We just bought the shoes a few weeks ago. We had to order them online because the only pair in my daughter's size at the store was the display and they couldn't find the other shoe to go with it. We were so close to a story with an absolutely perfect ending but -- insert Price is Right loser music here -- we checked and the store had the same shoe we did.

So, has a critter ever stolen your shoes? Are you packing an extra pair for your next trip? Is my daughter ever going to leave anything in the vestibule ever again??

I floated the Colorado river and we were warned not to leave small items, particularly small shiny items such as sunglasses or spoons unattended because birds have been known to carry them off to the canyon walls.

No critter has ever stolen a shoe, but a mouse once chewed two woolen socks I'd left to dry in the vestibule. Since then I've kept wet socks on a clothesline unless rain is predicted.

Dog in he neighborhood . . . ? Some have liked my shoes.

Jim had his watch stolen by a crow and I had socks chewed by a chipmunk, probably nest building. But that's it.

Nothing ever stolen, but a mouse chewed a hole in our tent last summer to get at my husband's sweaty buff. Would have rather he had kept it in the vestibule :)

Mr. Red Squirrel took a deep diving rapala....caught him once taking it up a tree and retrieved it...came back and took it for good. Island campsite on Meeds.

Many years ago, on a desert canyon whitewater river trip a friend climbed up a wall a few feet to look at the river and found a packrat nest, a cheap watch and a man's wallet. He finally located the owner who lost the wallet some years earlier.

On Lac La Croix, I had a rodent steal one of my paddling gloves from a stump by the fire grate. Finished sawing some wood, took them off and set them on the stump. When I was ready for bed I went to take them with me and one was missing. It was not found in the daylight, so I assume it was a camp rodent who liked salty gloves.

prettypaddle: "Has it happened to you?

This weekend we went camping in a friend's backyard and my daughter wanted to put her shoes in the tent to keep them safe. I told her not to worry, they'd be just fine under the vestibule. She puts then in the vestibule and we go to sleep.

Middle of the night and I wake up to what I assume is my daughter tossing in her sleep and kicking my feet. She wakes up too and has to go to the bathroom so we fumble around for our shoes but she can only find one of hers. It's dark and I'm tired so I just give her my shoes and I walk to the house in my socks.

Come morning we look for her shoe again and it's nowhere to be found. Not in the vestibule, not in the tent, not under the tent, nowhere in the yard. Just gone.

We just bought the shoes a few weeks ago. We had to order them online because the only pair in my daughter's size at the store was the display and they couldn't find the other shoe to go with it. We were so close to a story with an absolutely perfect ending but -- insert Price is Right loser music here -- we checked and the store had the same shoe we did.

dogs love to steal shoes

So, has a critter ever stolen your shoes? Are you packing an extra pair for your next trip? Is my daughter ever going to leave anything in the vestibule ever again??"

Never had a shoe disappear but when we are in the backcountry we do keep our shoes which become your most important item when you are miles from a replacement in our tent.

My daughter used to bring her playful rat terrier on trips. You had to be watchful of your used socks. He would snatch them and insist on a very vigorous game of "see if you can make me give this back."

Deer love to steal clothes with sweat in them to eat the salt. I bet it was a deer

Never did have any clothes taken. But on one trip something took a roll of toilet paper that was sitting next to the latrine. Never did find that or know what took it.

Tony

Does a spoon count?

This litte guy stole one of our Lexan spoons as we were eating breakfast one morning. It had a bit of residue from hot chocolate on it and he found it quite delicious. Spartan1 was amused that I was far more interested in getting a photo than in getting the spoon back! (Eventually he carried it off a ways, but we were able to retrieve it in the end.)

On a trip a few years back I officially pronounced my watch as having been poached by a rude seagull. My wife thought I was crazy, even after my emphatic telling of multiple third hand accounts similar that I was nearly sure I had heard or read at some point somewhere. Unfortunately I found the watch in my pack later that day.

Never lost a shoe but I once got to watch a squirrel take off with one of my son’s dirty socks. Talk about a lack of taste!

A Martin stole the screw in thermos lid for my hot cocoa cup on a winter trip.
Like myself, it also had a fondness for chocolate.
Was able to get a replacement lid directly from Thermos when I returned home.