WYOMING
When you visit a beautiful place like Grand Teton National Park, you don’t expect to have to worry about larcenous foxes or canid cartels. But after a fox at Lizard Creek Campground started absconding with footwear — some 32 shoes as of July 11 — “Wanted: For Grand Theft Footwear” posters began to appear, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported. Park officials have not determined exactly what the klepto-critter — aka “Swiper the Fox,” “the Sneaker Snatcher” or “the Midnight Mismatcher” — is doing with the shoes. (Maybe reselling them on eBay for extra cash?) But visitors are advised to secure their Manola Blahniks, as well as their munchies and toiletries, so that foxes (and other wildlife) don’t associate people with food and other goodies. Stealing food from campers is bad enough, but heaven only knows where this brazen shoe-snagging will lead. Then again, the legendary bandit “Zorro” was inspired by, or at least named after, a fox, so maybe we have a new folk hero in the making! Just think of the ballads we’ll sing around the campfire one day … barefoot, maybe, but still happy.
YELLOWSTONE
Local tour guide MacNeil Lyons captured some dramatic photographs in Yellowstone National Park showing a close encounter between a very eager German shepherd and a young gray wolf. The wolf was noshing on a carcass near the road when a German shepherd leaped out of a passing car and took off after it. Lyons’ photos show the dog chasing the wolf down the road while a different tour guide tries to catch up with it. Another photo shows the two canines facing off, less than 15 feet apart, with the wolf refusing to back down. It could have gotten nasty, but Lyons said the encounter between the canid cousins was over and done with as quickly as it began, like High Noon without the gunfight: “It was a stare down for a hot second,” he told Outdoor Life. “I think there was a moment where the wolf didn’t quite understand what was happening.” But then the German shepherd returned to its owner, perhaps to dream that night about Call of the Wild, as all domesticated pooches do, or so we imagine.
COLORADO
A wild marmot somehow hitched a ride inside the wheel well of a Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance field truck and ended up taking a three-hour road trip from a field near Minturn, Colorado, all the way to Denver — quite an adventure for the fuzzy little chonk, who came out of it completely unharmed, The Denver Post reports. The Animal Care, Veterinary Medicine and Field Conservation team gave him a clean bill of health, and he was returned the next day to the same area where he first hopped on. “Upon release, he darted to a nearby rock pile, kept a close eye on us for a few minutes, and then called out as he disappeared back into the wild,” the Alliance’s Facebook page said. The parting photograph is absolutely adorable, with the little guy appearing to smile and giving a cheery “Thanks for the lift, guys!” wave goodbye.
WASHINGTON
The tooth fairy is alive and well and living in Seattle. For the last 20 years, Purva Merchant, a pediatric dentist, has been moonlighting as the semi-mythological entity and answering emails from parents and children — 6,000 emails at last count, The New York Times reports. The kids’ letters address a multitude of concerns, one telling the fairy exactly where to find the tooth — “under the black pillow” — and another reminding her not to “bump into the heater,” while rummaging around in the dark after whichever baby bicuspid just went bye-bye. Some of the letters are short and sweet — “I love you” — others apologetic — “I’m so sorry I swallowed my tooth” — and a few are downright enigmatic: “Do you type with your feet?” One in particular stands out: Seventeen years ago, 6-year-old Piya Garg lost a tooth down a drain while vacationing in Singapore. Devastated by the loss — and worried about whether she’d be reimbursed in the right currency once she got home to Hong Kong — she emailed the tooth fairy and received a reassuring reply. Recently, Garg, now a 23-year-old living in London, had a wisdom tooth extracted and remembered that email. So she wrote to Merchant thanking her for her long-ago response. The tooth fairy replied instantly: “Thank you for reminding me that kindness, no matter how small, leaves a lasting impact on the world. I REALLY needed that reminder today.”
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This article appeared in the September 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Heard around the West.”
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