Sock Snatcher

Does anyone else have a dog who steals items of your clothing while you've left them home alone? If so, send in a comment; I'd love to hear your stories.

In my house, Meadow is the culprit. She's always been the mischievous one; sneaky, but in a fun and funny way. She hasn't a mean bone in her body. 

Meadow with an unusually large haul of stolen socks.

Doesn't she look guilty? Busted!

Usually she steals a sock. One sock. From the floor in my bedroom closet. Sometimes she'll pick one out of the clothes hamper (also in my closet) if there aren't any easy targets on the floor. Given a choice, she'll steal a recently worn, still damp and smelly running sock. Then she brings it downstairs. She never chews them; she just snoozes near them. 

In the photo above, she'd apparently picked up three socks from the floor, adding one at a time until she had all three in her mouth, and was in the process of bringing them downstairs when I came home; she dropped them on the stairs.

As if I wouldn't notice.

Given that Meadow, from earliest puppyhood, has always enjoyed licking toes - mine, as well as those of strangers who are crazy enough to wear open-toed sandals or shoes in her presence - I shouldn't be surprised by her sock fetish. Every morning when I get up, Meadow's happy face is there to greet me (along with Finn), and she delights in licking my toes when they first hit the floor.

Resource guarding.

Once I came home to find that Meadow had snatched one of my slippers from the upstairs closet and brought it downstairs. That's her teddy bear under her chin. Finn is just outside the picture frame; she's doing her best to guard "her" slipper from him. Finn couldn't be less interested.

And now, with winter here, Meadow has extending her list of targeted objects to include my running and walking gloves.

The mate of the snatched glove, in original location.

Meadow snatches gloves from the key-change-poop bags-junk basket near the front door. Under the glove in the photo above is a dog brush. She has been known to steal that, too; in fact, the handle has her teeth marks in it. While she never chews my clothing, apparently she thought it was wise to chew on the grooming brush she so detests.


She never spills anything else out of the basket. She's very precise and delicate when she steals.

She has also been known to steal a running glove off a drying rack upstairs.

I guess I'm flattered that she selects clothing items that have my scent on them. But recently worn running socks? Yuck.


I try to remember to keep gloves in the hall closet, or in drawers, so I don't find them damp with dog saliva just when I need them most. The socks, however, I've decided to occasionally leave on the closet floor so she can continue to steal them. I'd hate to ruin all her fun.

An aside: See those leashes hanging on the wall to the left in the photo above?

Here's what they're hanging from:

Creative leash holder.

Isn't that clever? A great gift from my dog-loving friend Chris R. 


Postscript: After writing the entry above, and scheduling its publication for later today, I headed upstairs. Meadow and Finn followed. While in the bathroom, I saw Meadow wander ever so quietly into the closet. A couple of minutes later - as if to prove everything written in the blog entry - upon entering my bedroom, this is what I saw:

Note the running sock under Meadow's paw. She stole it out of the hamper in the closet.


She's relentless.