The *Not Happy* Report

So, the barbarian animal that recently munched on my hostas?
Has been at it again. But this time it attacked ate my lilies.
(Thus, I believe the culprit is a deer. The lilies are too tall for a bunny to reach.)
I made the sad discovery as I was watering my zinnias last week, and while I was disappointed I knew it wasn't the end of the world. After all, these lilies are in the back yard and no one but me will really miss them. But I did take a picture and colored a white spot on the tips of the stems - just so you can see how many buds the vandal deer consumed.

Moments later, however, I came upon a scene which really got me angry.
That is to say, a couple of years ago I planted lilies by our driveway - where lots of people can see them - and I have been tending to them lovingly ever since. And early this summer I got so happy when I saw a marked increase in the number of stems coming from one particular set of lilies. Every time I passed them my heart did a little leap for joy in anticiaption of how beautiful they were going to be all summer long.
But last week after I decided not to be upset about the lilies in the back yard which had been eaten, I came upon this sight: *cue Psycho music*

Ahhhhhh! Are you kidding me? I'm counting 32 stems which have been violated by some savage beast, who didn't even care about or stop to consider the joy it was stealing from me - all for a moment of juicy pleasure, as it wiped out any possibility for these lilies to produce flowers this year.
Thirty-two stems!!!
Each one which would likely have produced anywhere from 4 to 8 flowers throughout the summer. That's hundreds of blooms wiped out by one thoughtless, brutal herbivore.

The nerve.

In my angst, I *might* have considered putting venison on the menu for dinner that night.
But then I got closer to my would-be flowers and had this pleasant encounter:

I located one stem which didn't reach as high as the others and had, therefore, escaped the decimation expereinced by its taller comrades. (Lesson learned: Being short sometimes has advantages.)
Thus, in a moment of sudden reprieve I decided to pardon the leviathon of its grevious offense, and choose instead to look forward to the blooms which this little shoot will produce. (Secretly, this lone survivor gives me a sense of victory over that deer. As in, the ability to say, "You missed me! You missed me! Na-na-na-na-na!!!" Re-visiting my childhood with that statement.)

Oh, and I did go immediately to The Home Depot garden department and purchased a spray (which won't harm the killers animals) guaranteed to repel four-legged plant eaters. I sure hope it works!