The footprints solved the mystery. I have mentioned before that there's been a chicken visiting my container garden. Maybe so, but there's also strong evidence now that my dog is going in and trampling stuff.

Who, me?

I had Claus help me dig up (and by 'help me' I mean, do it all by himself) the very hard dirt in the garden so I could amend it with compost. The soil was soft. Then it rained, so it was muddy.

Broken zip tie

Was there something compelling about the smell of the new compost? Inca wanted so badly to get into the garden that she broke through the flimsy zip ties that hold the fence together (I never said we were carpentry whizzes) and left large, deep footprints in the mud. I know, because her dog porch was all muddy when I came out in the morning.

I-n-c-aaaaa!

Meanwhile, in yet another effort to maximize my small patches of sunny growing areas, I went vertical. I bought pots that can hang over the railings. I put a couple on the cat's porch.

The cat really enjoyed rubbing her chin on the fuzzy red celosia flowers. Every time I looked at it, certain flowers were getting furrier and furrier. One day, she bit one flower head off. Another day, she pulled it out and dropped it on the floor.

Broken flower

I had another pot of mints on the cat's porch. The cat was walking through that a lot, apparently. As with the dog, the footprints did Ocho in. I had some towels hanging out to dry on the railing and twice, I came out to find dirt on them.

That was the end of the plants on the back porch. I moved that to the dog's porch. Of course Inca doesn't have a great track record with my plants either, but I think containers up high will be OK.

Honestly, these animals!