ACK!?! What dug up my garden?

I was up this morning a little after 6am which is significantly later than usual (normal is before daylight). I found that something had attempted to forage in my garden bed and pots. However, it didn't seem to like my tender greens and just dug things up and made holes. I repaired the bed damage as best I could but did lose a few really young onions and carrots. I did find well formed pawprints in the melon bed to-be.

Is it possible that a snowshoe hare found his way onto our deck for a little early morning destruction? I found this pawprint poster http://ahimsamedia.com/tag/animal-track-identification/ , and the prints look suspiciously near to what I have.I just moved here last fall and am not familiar with the fauna yet. Anyway, I took every packet of hot pepper seeds I had and sprinkled them throughout my planted bed. Maybe I can give the rascal a pepper ache!

I was going to post a picture, but doesn't look like it is going to work. Anyway, the hind print is about 4 inches long with 4 pads and I don't see a forepaw print other than a large hole. It was obviously on its haunches digging quite a bit.

I've had a lot of problems with rabbits, and indeed, sometimes it just seems like they like to dig. I've had them come to my garden and just dig up onion sets and not do anything with them! So frustrating! But later on, they'll cause quite a bit of damage to the plants. One year, I had a rabbit come into my garden and literally eat my young plants down to the ground (you can tell the difference between deer damage and rabbit damage because deer tear at the plants where as rabbits carefully snip).

The only thing I've done that works to keep out rabbits is to put a fence up

More than likely it was a wood chuck or maybe a cottontail, but the bunny is unlikely . I have been having terrible trouble with the grey squirrels this year...

I know what you mean about the squirrels, though it is chipmunks here with our "historical" rock walls. The paw prints is what has me perplexed. according to that chart I found it really doesn't look like anything but a snowshoe hare (do we even have them here?) There is a swampy area behind the house where they could nest and they are nocturnal. It almost makes me want to hang a critter cam. The hind print is 4 inches long with 4 pads with a quarter sized front paw.

I guess I don't mind guarding against an animal, but it sure helps to know which one.