Last week, my husband brought home three beautiful mum plants – yellow, orange, and purple. They were in full bloom and some of the best mums we had ever purchased. The yellow one was placed right outside the front door. The other two stood before the remnants of the tiger lilies, flanking a plump pumpkin.

Two days later, I went out to go to work when I noticed that half of the flowers on the yellow plant were gone. Some petals rested on the ground around the pot. My guess was that we had a deer visit us overnight. I wasn’t thrilled, but I do love the deer.

When I left the house on Saturday morning, I noticed the orange plant was also missing flowers. I thought we must have had another overnight visitor. That was until my husband and I returned home later that night, after being out to a birthday dinner. Imagine my surprise when I saw the orange plant was now almost devoid of flowers! There went my deer theory. Seeing a deer in the neighborhood during the day was unheard of.

By Sunday morning, all three plants were flowerless, and I focused on a new suspect – a squirrel. That had to be it. Even though we don’t see as many since we had to chop down the tree in front of our house, it had to be a squirrel – or maybe a rabbit.

On Monday at school, I received a text from my husband saying he found the bandit! He, in fact, did see a squirrel lurking around the front of the house. But not so fast!! Later that afternoon, a “fat groundhog” appeared. The groundhog sniffed around, stood on its hind legs, stared at my husband through the storm door, and then took off toward the neighbor’s fall display (which had hardly been touched). We are going with the groundhog theory.

Someone asked me if I was going to replace the plants. No way! This all-you-can-eat buffet is closed! I will have to admire the other mum plants on the cul-de-sac until they too become groundhog lunch or dinner.