Sniper for hire?

I've been garden-sitting for my friend Mike for the past week and a half and for the most part things have been going well. With the much-needed bouts of rain, the plants are looking lush and the harvest has been pretty impressive. The cucumbers and melons are going bonkers, corn and chard and fennel have been putting on a good show. But most of all, the tomatoes are looking just lovely. And Squeazle apparently thinks so, too....

Honestly, what kind of self-respecting squirrel would only *partially* eat a beautiful, ripe red tomato like this?? Jerk. I harvested a number of just-barely-orange ones a few days ago -- preventive measures after three days in a row of half-eaten evidence around the garden.

I wonder if one or two of the snipers that guard the White House garden might want to moonlight at Mike's place a few nights a week. I couldn't pay much, but I'd feed them well: tomato and fennel bruschetta, cucumber corn salad, chard and feta quiche.... (Oh, come on, there *must* be snipers posted around the perimeter of Ms. Obama's garden else there'd be no produce for the photo ops.)

These city rodents are ruthless, I tell you. Ruthless!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry