Jack strikes again

For those who don't read my gardening journal at lorrisgarden, I order my tomato and pepper plants from Totally Tomatoes, because they're super cheap, and a lot less hassle than starting the plants from seed.

I ordered 16 tomato plants (the Paste Tomato Collection) and 8 pepper plants (4 Fat & Sassy and 4 Super Heavyweight) back in February. They arrived yesterday, healthy and vigorous, ready to plant. I was going to plant them on Friday. Operative word being "was".

I unpacked the plants, gave them a drink, and set them on the kitchen windowsill so they'd get some indirect sun. I was going to leave them there until Friday, but Jack discovered them. She pulled a couple of the tomatoes into the sink, but I guess they weren't to her taste. I scolded her each time I found her messing with them, squirted her with the water bottle a couple of times, and actually smacked her bottom once. I thought my plants were safe.

I was wrong. When I was getting ready to go to bed last night, I discovered that, while she didn't care for the flavor of the tomatoes, she thought the peppers were tasty. 2 of the Fat & Sassy plants had all their leaves nibbled off, and one of the Super Heavyweights had disappeared completely -- I found the peat plug with the roots on the floor under the table.

So I moved the plants into the laundry room, which fortunately has a door that will close. I shut the door so they'd be safe overnight. I scolded Roopert for eating my pepper plants, she just said "errrROOO!" and trotted fatly away.

Instead of sunlight, the poor little things are having to make do with the fluorescent light in the laundry room, which is remaining closed until I get the plants in the ground. Plus I had to get 3 replacement plants from the grocery store. They're Burpee plants, so that's okay, but they're not the two varieties I picked. I got one Costa Rican sweet, one Golden Giant, and one Great Stuff.

Cats. They certainly do keep life interesting.