Dahlia Mystery

Something has been taking my dahlias. When I got home from work last Tuesday, one of my dahlias was missing. It was three feet tall, and had a flower on it, and it was gone! All of it. There was a hole in the ground where the bulb used to be, and there was crumbly dirt in the hole.
My initial thought was that someone came into my yard and dug it up. The dirt around the hole was smooth and compacted, like someone used a shovel.

But this evening, I took a quick walk through my dahlias and found another one missing. This one was over 4 feet tall, and tied to a stake. The plant below the tie was gone without a trace. But the plant above the tie, with a flower and several bulbs, was sitting on the ground, still connected to the stake. I figured if someone stole the plant, they would have taken the flowers too.

Any ideas?

Holy Squash!

I got back from a family reunion in Colorado, and found these growing from my summer squash plant. (Sorry it's so blurry--camera phone picture.)
I guess it makes up for the artichoke.