What would eat my artichoke plant?

I went to water the flower garden this morning (forgot last night :oops: ) and found my artichoke plant gone :shock:   It is (was) growing in the corner of the flower bed, close by are  beetroot and a courgette (seeded from compost!)  the asparagus peas are just along the patch too and they have not been touched.  My neighbour said it was the topo (mole) but they don´t eat plants do they.  We did have a baby rabbit in the garden around Feb time, but have seen no sign of it since.  There were no rabbit droppings by the artichoke plant, there were a few small leaves along the garden, just about 6" away from what is left of the plant :?  The flower veg garden are side by side, so surely if it were a rabbit it would go for the beans etc?
Last week my carnation plant suddenly appeared to have been cut down..... I think it was the painter man who was here, I saw him along the garden  and thought he was getting water from the hosepipe. You could see the plant had been cut with something sharp :x
The garden is fenced and the dogs would bark if someone entered the garden.  
Why just the archichoke and not the rest of the plants?  Not that I want the rest of the plants eaten! :shock:
Pamela

Not a fox- all the hens here (Both ours and the numerous neighbours) are free ranging both day and night-  they would eat a hen first instead of a plant surely and our dogs are close to where the plant was.  Neighbour (who hunts) says there are no foxes in this area.
Pamela

I don't know about you, but my next door neighbours dog goes nuts at anything bigger than an ant!

We have our son and his new girlfriend visiting- they went down to see the hens last night and there was a RAT  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:   HOw about that for good a  first impression for girlfriend?
So that might be my culprit.  It ran into the log pile which isn´t far from the artichoke plant (it´s re-growing )
Now to find a way to get rid of the rat without killing the hens
Pamela