Yesterday, my day began as all my days do with coffee, lots of coffee.  My third cup I took outside to enjoy the cooler weather we’re having.  That’s when I spotted one of my almost ripe Big Boy tomatoes on the ground.  Someone had nibbled a good quarter of it and left it there for me to find.  I was not happy.  The tomato went into the compost bin. 

     There was no sign of the culprit who had raided my garden.  However, I swear I heard giggling coming from the trees.  Later, I went out to feed the fish and as I walked under the magnolia tree, a large, mostly green tomato almost beaned me in the head.  It too had been nibbled.  I looked up to see a squirrel sitting on an upper branch.  His face covered with tomato juice from MY TOMATO.

     Thus, the war with the tree rats has begun.  I took the tomato from the compost bin and the one that had nearly whapped me in the head and baited a Have-a-Hart trap.  All tree rats who enter the trap will find themselves relocated to the other side of town.  My mother in law doesn’t have a garden.