Just last week, my husband Sandy and I were discussing the odd paltry-ness of our summer tomato crop. We’d harvested only 4 or 5 ripe tomatoes all season, in spite of early planting, faithful watering and healthy plants. We decided it must be the 90 degree heat, or maybe I simply hadn’t tended to the suckering as I should have, or perhaps the neighborhood children or workmen were sampling our bounty.

As with any mystery, a telltale clue finally emerged last evening. Sandy spotted our dog Dino in the backyard with a large red object in his mouth. Sandy went to check it out, and lo and behold, it was a big juicy tomato which Dino immediately chomped up!

Then, in the blink of an eye, Dino returned to the tomato patch, stood up on the fence, leaned over, stuck out his snout, plucked my biggest green tomato with his teeth and gobbled it down!

I couldn’t believe the villainous thief was a member of our very own household! Such betrayal. Such trickery. I guess I will be adding some reinforcements and height to the tomato fence, or more likely, making weekly visits to the Farmers’ Market.  I’d better throw in a few extra tomatoes for Dino!

By the way, has anyone ever heard of a tomato-eating dog?!