Rats!

We live on a canyon and in this area that means dealing with wildlife.  We see and hear coyotes on a regular basis.  The first year we moved in, we saw a bobcat a few times but no one we know has seen once since.  We see and hear lots of different birds, from ordinary finches and sparrows to red-tailed hawks, kites, roadrunners, quail and owls.  We battle ground hogs gophers and the summer before last I lost an entire tree worth of nearly-ripe-enough-to-pick  nectarines to ground squirrels.   The squirrels also like pomegranates and steal as many of them as possible.  All of us in this neighborhood have had to deal with rats, as well.  Especially after the fire in 2003.  They ate through the wiring in one of our cars that we park outside at night, on three different occasions!

So, when my bell peppers, radishes, and what is left of my tomatoes and zinnias started disappearing, I was sure that the ground squirrels--or worse--rats were getting to them.  After all, I planted everything in horse troughs that are too tall for corgis to raid.   When Bonnie was here, she "trimmed" anything that hung over the side that wasn't an aromatic herb or tomato leaves, but Darby didn't show much interested in standing up on her hind legs to try to eat anything.  So it had to be squirrels or rats, right?

Yup!  Cardigan Welsh rats!