Before.....after

Look at how nicely our Clematis had grown. It's really taken off over the past few months, and despite being attacked by caterpillars, it's growing vigorously and branching out nicely. That is, until the attack of the next biological assailant, which we believe was a Whippet .

I came home from work on Friday and was just checking out the yard. When I looked at the Clematis, I noticed that all the growing tips were wilting. Hm. I looked around the plant, didn't see anything strange and was trying to figure out what could have caused it.

Upon further examination, it seems that some variety of canine, again, we suspect Whippet, spent some time chewing on the support stick for the base of the vine. The problem is, the stem of the plant was wrapped around the support stick. So, while the stick was getting chewed, the vine was completely severed, as you can see in this photo.

Sigh. The good news is there were already several more shoots coming up from the ground, so I'm sure the plant will survive, we just have to start over again. I pulled the vine off the trellis yesterday afternoon, and now it's bare again. I installed an "electric" wire around the plant too. It's not actually hot, but looks just like the other wire in the yard that is hot, so we think it will be enough of a deterrent.

Dogs, gotta love 'em.....