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My name is Heather Froeschl and I’ll be filling in for Nona for the next two weeks, though she promises that she’ll still be dropping in when her wireless connection is good. Just a little background on me: I’m more of a cat person than dog person since I was never allowed to have a dog of my own as a kid. I begged and pleaded and even brought strays home, but Mom always said, “NO!” She was, however, a sucker for kittens and we always had cats around the house. My grandmother had dogs that I cuddled and coddled and so I lived vicariously through her in my canine “master” desires. Now, I am proud to say I have a dog who adopted us as her loving family (walked out of the woods one day and never left!), a chow/black lab mix, and four cats. Yes, four. I have two kids, so I wouldn’t consider myself having gone overboard just yet, only an easy going pet loving mom. I’ll try to mix it up a bit here with cat and dog tales, but I have to share this tidbit of a story I heard this morning on the radio. I just had to know if it was true!

It seems this small town in Indiana has had a rash of shoe disappearances. One at a time, shoes would go missing and then suddenly appear near the town of Waveland’s fire station. Acting town marshal Rob Kiger has seen a stray dog, brown and white and beagle-ish in nature around town, without a collar and not wanting one; the pup won’t let anyone close enough to catch him. Others have spotted the canine sleeping in the sun near the fire station. Could this be the culprit?

Susie Calvert, who works near the station, says she finds shoes in the area and leaves them out where, hopefully, the owners will find them. But it seems he might not just be interested in shoes; ladies, be careful what you hang out on the clothesline.

“The shoe bandit, beagle, came out of the alley and down this street, with a pair of women’s underwear on his head,” said Kiger. “He turned down the street and headed for the fire department.”

Other interests aside, the shoes seem to be his favorite items. As for his hangout, this mischievous dog may be hoping to get a hold of the ultimate in footwear: the fireman’s boot.

(This story was reported by the Associated Press on 8/27/08, but even more extensively by WIBV TV, here: http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8907114 , this photo however, is from istockphoto and is not intended to accuse or place blame on any specific beagle, real or implied.)