The tomato thief

This has been the best year for tomatoes that any of us can remember.  Sue and I planted beefsteak tomatoes (usually not a good idea here on Vancouver island) and they've done just beautifully with the long stretch of sunny weather.

This is one we picked last weekend.  It was huge and absolutely delicious.

But just as they were ripening something began to eat them.  Since last week we've found several of these big beauties on the ground with great big bites out of them.  We thought it must have been a racoon and I picked some of the almost ripe ones to keep them away from the thief.






But today we found out that is wasn't a racoon at all. It was one of my sister's dogs. Charlotte, the Sheltie and her sister Zoe are staying with us for a while. And Charlotte is crazy about food.  So crazy that she goes out into the garden and jumps up to bite at the ripening tomatoes. We caught her in the act this evening.  Here's the proof on the ground.

And here's the culprit looking the tiniest bit embarrassed

Needless to say, Charlotte won't be going into the garden unsupervised until all the tomatoes have been harvested.  Who knew that dogs would eat green tomatoes off the vine!