Thanks all for the Replies. I forgot to mention that this is my first year gardening, so I'm a bit on the beginner side. My first gardening area just turned out too small, then the second area wasn't enough. So I made a third, fourth and a fifth. I have crops all over the place (they do look great). That is why the fence idea was ruled out, just too much ground to cover. The other day, I caught him going into my shed. I closed the door on him and tried to figure out how I was going to remove him without having to kill it. Well, next thing I know, he somehow pushed the shed doors open (it was latched) and escaped. I have a burrow in my yard, I believe that the shed and my yard is their vacation home. Their place of residence is my neighbors yard. I could always lay stone all the way around my yard, but I would need a lot. (its at least close to 1000 feet of fence. I'm going to get a trap and trasfer them to a much nicer place far away from my garden.

Done! It was simple. The only problem I had was my own stupidity. I mistakenly clicked on VT instead of VA and the city of Orange. So of course it came up with 0 first. When I corrected that it was fine and came up with 2 results in Orange, VA. I didn't put in the name of the shelter at all. I just chose VA as the state and Orange as the city, then chose Rikki's when the 2 popped up.

Well in general ground hogs don't leave parts uneaten but squirrels do. So do gophers and rats. I tend to bet on squirrels simply because I have so many of them. That is one reason why many pick at color break and finish ripening indoors rather than leaving ripening fruit on the vine. Once color break happens the fruit gets nothing else from the plant so nothing is gained by leaving it on the plant. Dave

Thank you for identifying it as a mink lazy_gardens. Yes, it's about 24" long and I couldn't see any lighter coloured fur on its underbelly. It's a mink! Haven't seen it since so I guess it's moved on.