Is this some kind of joke?

by Carla
(Grand Rapids Mi.)

We always had a big garden when I was a kid. One year my mom went kind of crazy and she planted about forty tomato plants. When the tomatoes became ripe we got busy canning juice, sauce, salsa and anything else we could think of doing with tomatoes. We still had tons.

We called Grandma, "don't you need about two bushel baskets of tomatoes?' we asked. She took them.

We still had tomatoes, so we called neighbors, friends and more family. The tomatoes just kept coming.

My Dad would get up early and pick them . He put the ones that needed a little more sun time on the picnic table to ripen.

One morning I looked out my bedroom window and saw all these red "balls" all over the yard. It was really weird because it seemed like each one was carefully spaced so there was about three inches around each one.

At first I wondered who was playing a joke on our family by putting red balls all over the yard. But then I watched and our collie Susie walked up to the nearly empty table and gently picked a tomato off the table and turned and started toward the barn.

She got almost there and she set it down near another tomato.

Puzzled I got dressed and went outside and picked up a couple. Looking them over I realized why Susie set them down.

Apparently she didn't like the taste of tomatoes and as soon as a tooth broke the skin, she set it down. I checked some more and sure enough every tomato had one or two teeth marks on them!

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Is this some kind of joke?

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tomato story
by: Stacey

This is funny! You would think after the first - or second bite ...

Is This Some Kind Of Joke?
by: Jennifer

Too funny! I have a two year old pup that LOVES tomatoes. He has been feasting this summer on heirloom tomatoes, which BTW, have done enormously better than the usual hybrids I have raised in the past. Here in Texas we really have 2 seasons for tomatoes, and right now they are at their best!

Muskrat Love?
by: Carla

To Christa, What a strange tale, there seems to be something "fishy" going on! You would think the muskrats would eat the whole fish, not just a eye! I'm no muskrat expert, but maybe fish eyes are to muskrats what caviar is to people! You never know. Good story though.

To CARLA, re: Is this some kind of joke?
by: Christa, Kingston

This is just what little 4-legged creatures would do, leave "their marks".
Mine is NOT a Garden story and I hope, Doug will let this one "in".
In my younger years (50 or more years ago!!) I loved to go camping with my friends. They had a motorized boat, mine was an old "Klepper", the kind, that you could "put" in to your pocket, if new. It had a wooden frame, covered in waterproof sailcloth. Mine was now painted over to keep the water out. My friends would pull me every year, come September, to our destination on a beautiful Island along the Havel River by Potsdam, Germany.
We were quiet a group, everyone had a specific task to fulfill. The younger crew had to catch the fish for the meals. One evening, they brought about a hundred little perch and I had to make sure, they were kept "fresh" until the next day, when the Gang gathered for the "feast".
Cleaning that many fish, I had
to start my day early, only to discover, that all the fish were lying on the beach in a row and everyone was missing one eye. Who would go to so much trouble?? We all had a hard time getting to the bottom of this mystery. Only a few days after this has happened, one of our gang spotted some muskrats, who were roaming the waters edge in the dark, looking for whatever. Could it be, these little scavengers were the culprits attacking our fish and why not use them for their meal?! Well, we never did find out, but reading your story about the neatly placed tomatoes, I now think, the muskrats were the guilty ones.

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Submitted by: Christa, Kingston

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This is just what little 4-legged creatures would do, leave "their marks". Mine is NOT a Garden story and I hope, Doug will let this one "in". In my younger years (50 or more years ago!!) I loved to go camping with my friends. They had a motorized boat, mine was an old "Klepper", the kind, that you could "put" in to your pocket, if new. It had a wooden frame, covered in waterproof sailcloth. Mine was now painted over to keep the water out. My friends would pull me every year, come September, to our destination on a beautiful Island along the Havel River by Potsdam, Germany. We were quiet a group, everyone had a specific task to fulfill. The younger crew had to catch the fish for the meals. One evening, they brought about a hundred little perch and I had to make sure, they were kept "fresh" until the next day, when the Gang gathered for the "feast". Cleaning that many fish, I had to start my day early, only to discover, that all the fish were lying on the beach in a row and everyone was missing one eye. Who would go to so much trouble?? We all had a hard time getting to the bottom of this mystery. Only a few days after this has happened, one of our gang spotted some muskrats, who were roaming the waters edge in the dark, looking for whatever. Could it be, these little scavengers were the culprits attacking our fish and why not use them for their meal?! Well, we never did find out, but reading your story about the neatly placed tomatoes, I now think, the muskrats were the guilty ones.